Film Review: A Working Man

Chuck Dixon's "Levon's Trade" gets a solid adaptation.

Chuck Dixon’s Levon’s Trade was published in 2014, and centered on Levon Cade, a foreman at a construction site who use to have a certain set of skills, and did very bad things to very bad people. Now a widower, Levon is in a custody battle with his in-laws over his daughter. When the construction company owner’s own daughter disappears, he hires Levon to find her. The reader then follows the rabbit hole down of Ukrainian mobsters.

While I’m not 100% certain about the process, Sylvester Stallone picked up the film rights, and adapted the novel with director David Ayer. Yes, Ayer directed Suicide Squad and The Beekeeper. Don’t let that put you off.

The end result is a Jason Statham film, A Working Man.

What do I think? This is the first film I've seen in theaters since Avengers: Endgame. I did not regret it

In some respects, A Working Man is filmed like Taken, but in the style of John Wick. There are fancy nightclubs and neon added where I don't recall from the book. Levon’s mentor, a blind sergeant, even refers to himself as a gun sommelier. But those are mostly cosmetic issues. No one shoved Statham onto a Taran Butler training set.

But so much of the book remains that I’m surprised. I even recognized some of the dialogue. There is at least one weapon choice held over from the book that struck me as odd, since it was a long range weapon and the setting was changed to indoors…

But let me highlight something. HOLLYWOOD ACTUALLY READ THE BOOK. Certainly, it has been made more cinematic, with some rewrites for the movie, but the changes genuinely work to the film’s advantage. (I often will see complaints about the Lord of the Rings of Harry Potter films for certain liberties with the source materials. But I remember the 1990s; you haven’t seen book adaptations ruined until you’ve seen The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child butchered to death by Hollywood hacks.)

Jason Statham is allowed to act for the first time in ... A while. It's nice to see he's allowed to. He can still kick ass, but less like Jackie Chan, and more like a normal person. He even gets to break out his suit from The Transporter films. The character of Levon is thoughtful, and we see him think—do you know how hard that is to pull off with even a talented actor? Someone has clearly been giving him acting lessons … or this is just the first time anyone let him try.

Even Michael Pena, playing the missing girl’s father, is allowed to act. Who knew he could?

But there’s a lot here from the original novel. I liked the DIY waterboarding. There’s a good use of Chicago locations (even though at least one place was shot in the UK)

Are there problems? Sure. If you want to, you can find them. Some are cosmetic, and some are limited to my specific theater.

• Secondary casting might grate. It once took me 15 minutes to realize I was lost in Harlem, so it takes a heavy hand for me to notice DEI hiring. Somehow, the only white people in this entire movie are Jason Statham, his blind mentor and the (now) Russian mobsters. I don’t know at what point during the film process the mobsters became Russian, because there’s pro-Ukrainian graffiti in the background of one shot, which makes me think that was a change made later on. But there are no white folk on a construction site, or lawyers, or cops. There is one black gang leader, a concession to this being set in Chicago, but since he’s a presented as a veteran, Statham apologies when he has to kill the guy.

• Shaky cam will hurt your eyes occasionally, as will the lens flares in the opening scenes.

• And pick your theater wisely, because mine pumped up the volume so that I needed ear pro for every fight scene; punches sounded like gunshots, and gunshots were explosions.

You’ll note that much of that are quibbles. I think this film is well worth your money. I think seeing it in theaters will be a good use of your time as well. Funny enough, the DVD is already up for pre-order.