Redemption Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Redemption Blu-ray Movie Review

Statham's salvation?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 24, 2013

Jason Statham has built a career out of playing hardscrabble action characters who quite often have some less than heroic tendencies. But Statham has always been a kind of unusual actor in the action genre, one who doesn’t fit quite so easily into the larger than life personas that are usually inhabited by actors like Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Statham is much more of an Everyman, despite the fact that he’s played some unsavory characters at various points in his career, and he almost seems like a blue collar working class anti-hero in many of his films. Could part of this simply have something to do with Statham’s appearance? He isn’t overly tall, and doesn’t have the matinee idol good looks that many of the genre’s leading men have (or at least had). And then there’s that semi-bald pate of his—what action star worth his salt doesn’t have a full head of Samson-esque locks? Perhaps because he isn’t the very model of a modern major action star, Statham has often undertaken more unusual parts, attempting at least to flex his performance muscles as much as he does his actual muscles in any of his martial arts moves. Redemption (which was released in the United Kingdom as Hummingbird) finds Statham in a resolutely gray shaded moral area once again, depicting an emotionally scarred veteran who’s returned from the front lines of Afghanistan with such deep post traumatic stress disorder that the only way he can cope is to drown his memories in copious amounts of alcohol. Statham plays Joseph Smith (no, not the Mormon prophet), who is now homeless on the streets of London and who in the harrowing opening sequence gets the living crap beaten out of him by some street toughs who go around harassing homeless people and taking whatever booty they may have managed to accrue in their sad lives. The first shot of Statham is actually disorienting—not only is he disheveled and unkempt, his bald head is surrounded with just a smattering of greasy locks that makes him a rather unlikely double for Albert Finney in Scrooge. Futhermore, Statham evinces none of his trademark action moves in this sequence and actually is very much on the receiving end of a smackdown. What’s going on here?

Steven Knight is best known for having written Eastern Promises and Dirty Pretty Things, but Redemption marks his debut as a feature film director (he also wrote the screenplay). This film has certain elements that fans of his previous screenplays will recognize, including elements that are at least tangentially related to the criminal underworld and the efforts of basically decent people to wend their way through the morass created by a morally ambiguous culture. But Redemption is a rather odd hybrid, one blending a sort of socially conscious aspect with more traditional thriller elements, sometimes to rather deleterious effect.

We follow Joey after he’s separated from his “cardboard box mate” Isabel (Victoria Bewick), and while Joey is attempting to stay conscious after a really vicious beating, he manages to literally stumble through a skylight, landing in a rather luxe apartment which seems to be abandoned. This is one of several too convenient coincidences that Redemption employs, in this case providing Joey with a comfortable setting in which to reinvent his shattered life while trying to track down Isabel. To Knight’s credit, he doesn’t make the transformation instantaneous, though one of the first post-apartment scenes finds Joey handing a copious wad of cash he’s gotten (by virtue of finding the apartment owner’s ATM card) to a well meaning nun named Cristina (Agata Buzek) who runs a soup kitchen that Joey has sometimes frequented. Though Joey doesn’t remember his largesse the next day, the point has already been made: Joey, for all his inner torments, is basically a good guy.

Knight hedges his bets by having Joey split his attentions between three women. We’ve already met Isabel and Sister Cristina, but soon his estranged wife Dawn (Vicky McClure) is also in the picture. This diffusion of focus is one of the central oddities of Redemption. The film goes to great lengths to set Joey up on what becomes a massive vengeance arc, after Isabel’s fate turns tragic, but at the same time the film spends just as much time depicting Joey’s slow infatuation with Cristina and his simultaneous attempts to try to make amends with Dawn. The film might have been better served with at least one of these stories (probably Dawn’s) jettisoned in order to streamline the dramatic momentum.

Knight also hedges his bets with his portrayal of what’s actually causing Joey’s post traumatic stress disorder. We get little snippets of it—perhaps psychologically astute, given Joey’s fractious state of mind—but all we really know is there was carnage—lots and lots of carnage, and Joey may have gone off the deep end with an Afghani native. The film does create a nice metaphor between an all seeing government and its use of camera equipped drones called hummingbirds and a fascinating if disturbing sequence where Joey, perhaps in the grips of delirium tremens, is actually beset upon by “real” hummingbirds. The irony here is that for all the omnipotent voyeurism, no one can really penetrate into what’s really eating Joey in his soul of souls.

Redemption is inarguably ambitious, and it certainly provides Statham with a chance to do more than merely kick butt (though he gets to do that a couple of times, too). But like Joey himself, the film wanders through a lot of back alleys without any sure sense of direction. Maybe Knight conceived this film figuratively as the hummingbird flies, but in the grim mean streets of London, the route is decidedly more tortuous.

Redemption Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Redemption is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This digitally shot feature was lensed by legendary cinematographer Chris Menges (The Mission, The Killing Fields), and one of the film's greatest strengths is Menges' gritty, cool blue accounting of the twisted back streets and grimy alleyways of London. A lot of this film takes place either at night or in shrouded environments, as is clearly shown in the screenshots accompanying this review, but contrast is very strong throughout this high definition presentation, and even in the most dimly lit scenes fine detail is almost always admirable. In the brightly lit daytime scenes, it's a great deal more than that, elevated by accurate and well saturated color. The image is very sharp and precise with no stability issues whatsoever to report.

Redemption Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Redemption's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 offers a beautifully immersive experience that ping pongs between relatively subtle ambient environmental noises and the bombastic explosions that haunt Joey's nightmares of combat in Afghanistan. The film is bolstered by a very effective score by Dario Marianelli which spills into the surrounds. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the mix really nicely prioritizes the sometimes noisy environments of the urban landscape the film explores. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is very wide, though in fits and starts.

Redemption Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Redemption: Behind the Scenes Featurette (1080p; 4:59) is a rote but interesting enough brief piece with various cast and crew discussing the film and the character of Joey, intercut with shots of scenes being filmed and snippets from the final film.

Redemption Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Redemption is probably going to throw Statham fans for a total loop, and it may even confound those who are drawn by Knight's involvement. The fact that these two are working together is indicative of the film's strengths and its weaknesses. There are simply too many diversions here to satisfy those who want Knight's typically visceral look at a misunderstood underclass, or for those who want Statham's patented brand of action mastery. But that means that Redemption is at least unlike a horde of other cookie cutter material that fits too snugly into any given category. This film may not fulfill its ambitions, but at least it has ambition. This Blu-ray offers superior video and audio and is certainly worth a rental.