Wolfs: Pitt and Clooney Rekindle Chemistry as Competing 'Fixers' in an Unchallenging Action Comedy
By Karen Gordon
Rating: B
Are there any actors in modern Hollywood with better chemistry than George Clooney and Brad Pitt? Surprisingly, it’s been 16 years (since Burn After Reading), since they shared the screen.
And if it feels as if they’ve been together making movies all along, it may speak to what they generated previously (that, or the ubiquity of reruns).
Whatever it is, there’s such an ease and natural click between them in the action comedy Wolfs, it also feels like no time has passed. They easily fall into the rhythm they established in the three Ocean’s movies: Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen.
You know these guys.
And that’s key to Wolfs. Writer/director Jon Watts has built a story that has a lot of moving parts, a lot of twists and challenges for its heroes, (or anti-heroes), and lots of surprises for the audience. But in spite of the movie’s name Wolfs - meant to imply lone wolves - at its core, this is a buddy caper story that turns on the relationship between its two suave leads.
If you’re open to that, and to a comedy-action-thriller that involves a dive into the drug dealing criminal underworld, and doesn’t ask much of you, chances are you’ll enjoy this.
Wolfs begins with the sound of glass breaking, and a clearly panicked Margaret (Amy Ryan), who suddenly has a dead body in her hotel room. A young man, (Austin Abrams), known only as The Kid, has fallen hard on a glass bar cart, shattering it, apparently killing himself and falling right onto her purse. She yanks it out from under him, splattering herself with a lot of blood. Complications piled on complications for her.
Shocked and semi hysterical, Margaret needs specialized help. She calls a fixer, played by Clooney, (his character is only identified in the credits as Magaret’s Man) who assures her that he’s the only one who can clean up the mess and make it go away.
As he’s explaining that he’s the only person with this set of skills, another fixer appears, played by Pitt (and known as Pam’s Man in the credits). He’s been called in by Pam, the owner of the hotel. A dead body in one of her very exclusive $10,000-a-night suites, and a scandal involving Margaret (who turns out to be a very prominent District Attorney) would be very, very bad publicity for her trendy new hotel.
The two fixers are both very sure of themselves, each convinced that they’re the best at what they do, and they apparently have never heard of each other. Competitive banter begins, dry humourous insults are traded, duties are divided up and the clean-up continues.
As Margaret’s Man gets on with dealing with the kid, Pam’s Man notices a detail that leads to another very major problem. And that’s just the beginning of the complications.
Writer/director Jon Watts has shown his action movie bona fides, directing the last three Spider-Man movies, (He also wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming). He wrote Wolfs specifically for Clooney and Pitt, so it’s not a surprise that the banter feels shaped for each. They’re going to get things thrown at them unexpectedly, get frustrated, but never really lose their cool or polish.
Clooney and Pitt are both superstars, who are, for better or worse, often in the news cycle. This invariably bleeds into their image. And yet, once the film begins, remarkably perhaps, the two stars largely disappear into their characters, and so their personas don’t distract from the action.
Another hallmark of their work is the neither are screen hogs. They are generous to other actors, letting each have their moments. Austin Abrams in particular gets to shine.
Wolfs moves quickly from wrinkle to wrinkle. And given the twists and turns, Watts’ action experience comes in handy. The movie location-hops and doesn’t skimp on action sequences. Somewhere around the halfway point, there’s a 15-minute action sequence that involves a foot chase AND a car chase through a snowy Manhattan Chinatown. All of it is shot by Larkin Seiple, who was the director of photography on the action-heavy Everything, Everywhere All At Once.
Does it all work? Well, it felt like there were a few loose ends. For instance, would Margaret, the District Attorney really have gone to her room with such a young-looking unsophisticated kid?
There are a few other points that made me say, hmm. It would take a second viewing to figure out a few other questions about the plot. As well, let’s just say that it ends on the kind of note that makes —you guessed it— a sequel possible.
But let’s stay in the present: Overall, Wolfs is not breaking new ground, nor is it trying to. But it is an entertaining couple of hours at the movies. That works for me.
Wolfs. Written annd directed by Jon Watt. Stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Amy Ryan and Austin Abrams. Opens in theatres Friday, September 20.