The Samaritan Review

Posted by emi bonaffini on May 24, 2012 · 1 Comment

With nothing to praise or expect from The Samaritan, a small-ish Canadian production with (tow) big names, and the only statement that this flick unfortunately accomplishes is showing that execution is everything. With a well-woven and intricate series of events, and lackluster of morale that could’ve been in the movie’s advantages, its horrible pacing and terribly slow editing/cinematography makes the movie a thousand times worse than it sounds like.

Foley (Samuel L. Jackson) has been in prison for 25 years and is ready to start a new life and leave his grifting years behind him. Unfortunately, he ends up meeting with the son of his ex-partner in crime, Ethan (Luke Kirby), and he seems to want to connect with him, and his reasons are still unknown.

In the meantime, Foley meets this girl Iris (Ruth Negga) who is somehow connected to Ethan. The protagonists avoids any confrontations and only looks for settling it down and start a new life, and Iris is his new light in his life.

Twists after twist, the move slowly unravels but with a sluggish tenure and no prominent main arc to really leach on. The pivotal arcs are misused too often and due to its hurtful pacing, they start becoming weary, fast. By the end, it dragged so much that you really don’t care anymore.

The Samaritan tries to, pardon the term, “mind-fuck” us so many times, and hard, that it feels like it’s the only backbone it wants to rest upon. With a poor execution on establishing either the right tone or even a moral ground, it just fails to convey any sort of emotion except disturbed, but scarcely betrayed as well.

“I’m assembling a team–err, I mean grift!”

The editing was probably the worst aspect of the experience whilst it relies on pitiable montages, yes—more than one, to reflect the passage of time. The music was distracting and too prominent to the dialogue, and those seemed to be written sarcastically, or to giggle upon, and had very low credibility.

Samuel L. Jackson was, as always, loveable. Except in a few scenes, but that’s not his fault, but the story’s. Many of the boring sequences were filled with his many psychotic-eyed faces and that’s when I felt Nick Fury was just waiting to emerge.

The rest of the cast is forgettable, even Tom Wilkinson, who plays the big con man that they’re after to get. Maybe this was an unofficial Rush Hour sequel…oh, never mind, he dies in that one.

Unfortunately, much more could’ve come out of this but that’s as far as this storyline gets stretched out. The Samaritan is a dark and poorly executed movie that will leave your mouth dry and brain bored to death.

3.5/10

Theatrical release date: May 18th 2012