Proving once again that I know absolutely nothing about movies, the terrorists again take over the nature reserve in The Contract. Pre-uniting 2012’s John Cusack and Morgan Freedman (it shot in 2006) it’s a bizarre, bloody little tale about a grieving widower and his pot-head son stumbling across a ruthless assassin in the picturesque middle of nowhere. Doing the right thing, father, son and dangerous prisoner are then relentlessly pursued across country by a vicious gang, the FBI and some clunky local cops.
Morgan Freeman makes odd movie choices – this is more Bucket List in stature than, say, The Shawshank Redemption. I can only guess he was dragged into it by director Bruce Beresford, who helmed Driving Miss Daisy back in the late 80’s. It’s bearable enough watching, but it feels, I don’t know, cheap. I generally also get frustrated when characters act illogically; having schlepped the bad guy around for an hour an a half, there’s no attempt by any law enforcement agency to debrief the hapless hero. This lack of consistency seems indicative of a film that relies on star power rather than plot to drive it forward.
The movie mostly filmed in Bulgaria. I thought Australia, because of the occasional wayward vowel, but Bulgaria it was.