“Motor City,” the throwback revenge thriller from director Potsy Ponciroli and screenwriter Chad St. John, asks a curious question: What happens if we take a hypergeneric action story and strip away all of the requisite hypergeneric action dialogue? The resulting film, a virtually dialogue-free montage set to the greatest music hits of the disco, classic rock and soul era, is creatively ambitious and visually bold even as it suffers from the same predictable story beats and underwritten characters commonplace in more conventional genre films.
Alan Ritchson stars as John Miller, a blue-collar bruiser with a heart of gold in 1970s Detroit. On the day he proposes to the love of his life, Sophie (Shailene Woodley), Miller is arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Turns out he was framed by Sophie’s ex, Reynolds (Ben Foster), a local drug lord with plenty of dirty cops on the payroll to help him get what he wants.
With Miller in prison, Sophie goes back to her ex and soon they are married. When Miller finds out, he determines to break out of prison with the help of some ride-or-die friends and get revenge on everybody who wronged him.
Bringing this story to life largely devoid of dialogue is an admirable creative experiment, though the conceit works more naturally whenever the movie commits to its action set pieces and tends to struggle in the more quiet moments. Particularly in the second act, there are several scenes of characters sitting across from each other at a table in which the viewer can feel the filmmaker trying to justify why these characters wouldn’t use their words to communicate, consequently making the scenes feel forced and unnatural, breaking any immersion.
The quieter moments in the second act develop into a fantastic climax as the story commits fully to action sequences that don’t require dialogue to deliver visceral thrills. One particular fight scene during a hellish elevator ride is an outstanding achievement in close-quarter choreography with gut-wrenching brutality.
By stripping away all dialogue yet keeping generic character types, we are unable to form emotional connections with any of the characters. When people are bloodied or murdered, we feel nothing. Even without the hammy dialogue, the characters are still the one-dimensional stock players to be expected in such a film, thus not demanding much from the individual performers. Despite these limitations with the writing and style, Foster is delightfully scummy as a sleazy caricature of drug-addled excess, sweating through silk shirts and delighting in his cruelty.
In the lead role, Ritchson continues bolstering his action star bonafides, serving as a hulked-out Jason Statham even as he chooses more creatively interesting projects.
Despite its narrative shortcomings, “Motor City” is a fascinating curiosity worth admiring for its attempts to elevate a tried-and-true formula into something more distinct and challenging.
A version of this review was posted at Curt On The Movies.
“Motor City” Rated R for strong bloody violence, some grisly images, drug content, sexuality/nudity and language. Running Time: 1 hour and 43 minutes. Directed by Potsy Ponciroli. Written by Chad St. John. Starring Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce and Shailene Woodley. Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller.
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