Shelter: Jason Statham Plays an Avuncular Assassin, Because of Course He Does
By Chris Knight
Rating: B+
There was a time when, if Jason Statham was in a movie, you knew he’d be behind the wheel. In films like The Italian Job, the Transporter series, Death Race, and even Gnomeo & Juliet (look it up!) driving was his bag.
Even his characters — Chev Chelios, Frank Martin, Jensen Ames — sounded like cars.
More recently he’s branched out (a little) to play hitmen, spies and special forces types, often retired or left for dead or dragged back into the game, or - in the case of Shelter - all three. Though much like Tom Cruise’s motorcycle predilection, he often manages to muscle some motoring into the mix.
Jason Statham and Bodhi Rae Breathnach, one step ahead of a hitman in Shelter
Shelter finds Statham’s character, Michael Mason, holed up in a disused lighthouse on a small islet in the Outer Hebrides on the edge of Scotland, with only a dog for company.
The opening 10 minutes play like a dryly comic pastiche of the genre, as Mason barks staccato dialogue to his canine companion, drinks vodka and plays chess by himself, all while wearing a heavy sweater and a knitted toque that I was pretty sure he’d never remove. Oh, and he sleeps. More like Jason Stasis.
Things (finally) take a turn when the boat that delivers his supplies capsizes in a storm. The skipper goes down with the craft, but Mason manages to rescue the man’s teenaged niece, Jessie. Initially gruff, he gradually becomes somewhat more avuncular toward her. If your uncle could take out an entire MI6 hit squad, that is.
Jessie needs antibiotics and dressing for a wound, so Mason makes a rare trip to the mainland, where Britain’s surveillance state, amped up in the film by a fictional — I hope! — Big Brother system, quickly IDs him. Bill Nighy, playing an MI6 spymaster, assigns a heartless assassin named Workman (Bryan Vigier) to kill Mason and also the girl for good measure.
How do we know Workman is heartless? Because in one instance where Mason and Jessie escape his clutches and Nighy’s character wants to know if they’re dead, his only reply is: “Not yet.”
What follows is a pretty standard action-adventure story, with Mason and Jessie on the run, managing to stay one ahead of their would-be killer, all while racking up a fair bit of collateral damage and calling in favours. In a parallel storyline, Nighy paces the corridors of Whitehall and is gradually discovered to be a real bastard by those who work for him.
There are, however, three things that elevate Shelter above a C average score. The first is Statham himself, an actor who knows how to stay in his lane (all those driving movies!) and do what he does best, which is to be brusque and to kill people.
Second is director Ric Roman Waugh, one of those stuntman-turned-filmmakers, which means he knows his way around an action sequence better than most. The mid-movie car chase that you knew was coming is a work of art, while Jessie’s rescue at sea had me fearful for the safety of the young actress. Both scenes feel viscerally physical in an age when computer-generated effects often manage to rob movies of their gravitas, both emotional and corporeal.
And the rescue scene brings me to young Bodhi Rae Breathnach, who plays Jessie and as such is the beating heart of the film. She was somewhat overshadowed as one of the daughters in the recent Shakespeare biopic Hamnet, but truly shines here, elevating the role of child-in-distress with a dollop of agency and self-awareness.
I feel about her the way I did about Thomasin McKenzie in 2018’s Leave No Trace. That actress went on to make Jojo Rabbit, The Power of the Dog, and Last Night in Soho, and will soon be playing Audrey Hepburn in a biopic.
No pressure, Breathnach, but you’re off to a great start.
Shelter. Directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Starring Jason Statham, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Bill Nighy, and Bryan Vigier. Opens Friday, January 30 in cinemas.