'Road House' movie review: West Side Story
Cinema will never get tired of protagonists with a cool, devil-may-care attitude and thinly veiled pain and trauma behind their eyes. In Road House, moments after we are introduced to Jake Gyllenhaal’s ex-UFC fighter Dalton, we see him getting knifed. He barely flinches, pulls out the knife with more annoyance than pain, and simply slaps a strip of duct tape onto the wound and moves on. While this works to introduce what kind of man our protagonist is, it also tells us that the action is going to be ruthless, wacky, and unhinged.
Dalton is recruited by a woman to defend her bar from a rich gangster who sends wave after wave of thugs to scare her into giving up the place. This is a template we are all too familiar with. A stoic hero walks into a lawless town, charms some locals despite his best efforts, and with ruthless violence and swashbuckling style, defends the town from the bad guys and restores peace.
Road House has the basic tenets of Western filmmaking in its DNA. With a beautiful coastal setting, and the way of life in this beachside town being an integral part of the narrative, you could even go as far as to call it a ‘Beach Western’. Instead of stand-offs, we have bar brawls and instead of gun-slinging, we have good old-fashioned fist fights. While Dalton’s past and his backstory are hastily glossed over, we hardly care because this is a template we are used to by now. And so we intuitively know where his emotional dissonance is coming from. The blossoming romance between Dalton and local nurse Ellie is charming but the film hardly has enough time to develop that relationship.
Real-life UFC fighter Conor McGregor makes his acting debut in a delightfully unhinged performance. McGregor packs heft and energy with every cartoon-ish stride, and with every delivery, that drips of his signature UFC trash talk energy. His over-the-top portrayal, which is more of a colourful performance than character-driven acting, is enjoyable if you go along with the wackiness. On the other hand, Gyllenhaal delivers a functional performance, coloured with variations of a scowl.
The film could have delivered a lasting impression if it had fleshed out the promising supporting characters, resolved the many emotional arcs it opens but leaves undeveloped towards the end, and employed higher stakes. While these shortcomings could have improved the film, it is undeniable that by the time the credits roll, we walk away satisfied and wanting more. The overall appeal of Road House is the madcap energy that permeates every scene.
Road House
Director: Doug Liman
Genre: Thriller
Platform: Amazon Prime
Language: English
Rating: 3.5/5