Thoughtless Action

CAST: Denzel Washington,Ryan Reynolds,Brendan Gleeson,

Vera Farmiga

Rating: *1/2

There was a time when the enormously charming Denzel Washington did roles that required him to do more than walk in purposeful,long strides,slightly leaning forward,scowling and holding a gun,for a general greater good,never clearly explained. This is not one of those roles.

Alternating between car chases,shootouts,grievous injuries that miraculously do not kill two people — Tobin Frost (Washington) and Matt Weston (Reynolds) — and a file with a damaging list dangled on a small polybag,Safe House is a sound fest without a real thought. Except Washington gets dubbed “the black Dorian Gray” by an admiring associate.

Frost is a CIA agent who went rogue eight years ago and has been selling agency secrets. Having just acquired the aforesaid file and having made a deal for it for $10 million,he steps out,to be chased by assassins. So he walks into the US Consulate in Cape Town. CIA,its two divisions led by Farmiga and Gleeson,is all agog,holding meetings in “situation rooms”,where it is decided that Frost would be taken to a “safe house” and interrogated. That safe house’s “housekeeper” is Weston.

Needless to say,things don’t go as planned and Frost proves a slippery guy to hold. They try water-boarding too,the same controversial torture technique as used on Guantanamo Bay detainees. A CIA agent tells us with authority that Khalid Mohammed Sheikh,the alleged 9/11 mastermind,survived 20 seconds under water. Frost goes under,twice,and emerges triumphant. “How long was that?” he asks his shaken interrogator. I don’t know. The film is banking on everyone being too horrified to keep a count.