Naturally Sean Penn, earnest Hollywood liberal and hard-working humanitarian, didn't lightly undertake his role as professional hitman Jim Terrier in The Gunman. "The idea of making violence cute – I've never been interested as an actor in those things," Penn has commented. "But when I read this I thought there were a lot of real-world parallels to it."
But let's face it, the fact that The Gunman is directed by Pierre Morel, who also helmed the irony-deficient revenge yarn Taken, doesn't augur well for anyone expecting nuanced dissection of moral conundrums, and the amount of promotional legwork Penn has been putting in suggests a degree of concern about its box-office prospects. In the end, the star is semi-vindicated. The Gunman emerges as a rugged adventure story which manages to evoke some plausibly murky political and geopolitical issues. Unfortunately, it's mostly been said before, and characterisation comes a distant second to the shenanigans of shadowy corporations and mysterious agencies (pictured below, Penn with Ray Winstone).
The story begins in the Congo in 2006, where international aid agencies are trying to restore order after decades of chaos. Terrier and his comrades fly in, ostensibly to provide security for the NGO brigade (and in Terrier's case also to reconnect with medico-girlfriend Annie, played somewhat vapidly by Jasmine Trinca, pictured below left). However, their real job is to bump off a government minister who's threatening to terminate mining contracts with various international companies. These contracts are hugely lucrative, so the minister has to go.
Terrier, having been the appointed trigger man on the mission, is spirited out of Africa. Reeling from a neurogical condition brought on by too many loud bangs and also wracked by a crisis of conscience – this latest job triggered a further civil war in the Congo, albeit a fictional one invented for the movie – he devotes himself to humanitarian work (a professional mercenary? Really?) This all comes crashing to a halt when a bunch of gunmen come to kill him (spoiler: he survives). Then he goes looking for whoever sent them.
By now you may be thinking this is Taken 4 under a false flag, though the haggard (though severely gym-enhanced) Penn can't match the insouciant brutishness which seems to come naturally to Liam Neeson. However, The Gunman does at least offer amusing opportunities for star-spotting. The best value comes from Mark Rylance as Cox (pictured below right with Penn), who rises smarmily from field operative to sleek executive in charge of a London-based international security company.
Javier Bardem is Felix, one of Terrier's hit-squad who has always nurtured lascivious designs on Annie, and he gives Terrier a 
pretext for an extremely hazardous trip to Barcelona. Then there's Idris Elba, playing an Interpol agent called DuPont who's on the trail of the Congo killers. Unfortunately Elba's huge presence is dissipated by implausible dialogue and a paucity of screen time. As for Ray Winstone, he doesn't need to make any effort whatsoever as Stanley, a wheezy East End geezer scarred by many a foreign battlefield.
This is a watchable thriller with enough all-action set pieces to carry you along, particularly a lengthy sequence in the Barcelona bullring, though an incongruous line in the closing credits points out that Barcelona has been bullfighting-free since 2012. But despite its realpolitik pretensions, The Gunman doesn't do anything the Bourne movies (or for that matter The Constant Gardener) haven't already done better. I can't picture Penn reprising this role, somehow.
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