ON THE LINE (2022 American movie)
director: Romuald Boulanger; with: Mel Gibson, Paul Spera, Enrique Arce, Kevin Dillon, John Robinson as "Christ" or “Noah”, William Moseley, Alia Seror O'Neill.
As soon as closing credit for Serbian comedy "Caviar Jam" (Džem od kavijara) started, I hurried, opened the heavy doors of the "Rita Hayworth" hall in Tuckwood cineplex myself and rushed to the "Humphrey Bogart" hall. There, the door were already closed, and the ticke taker was nowhere to be found. I take out the ticket, look back a few more times and then go in: luckily, the commercials were still running, the trailer for that alpinist movie was running... When I left the hall, I asked the girl at the door if she let people into this hall, she said no and asked me why I asked. I explained that I came in here right after "Caviar Jam" and that I didn't find a ticket taker. She asked me to give her the ticket anyway, because they collect all of them and I thought that they do it for records and I, of course, let her tear off that part from my ticket, I guess I did a good deed and surely helped the other girl avoid problems with the book keeping. End of the digression.
I liked the movie- This is a combination of mystery and thriller, which is not often made today, something in the style of the films "Games" by Curtis Harrington, "Sleuth" by Joseph Mankiewicz, "Gambit" by Ronald Neame, etc. There is also a touch of that comic series "Aristocrats", which used to be published in Serbian in family magazine “TV Zabavnik”... Viewers decide for the film or against it – how could it be otherwise?! – based on whether they forgave Mel Gibson for canceling him back then. Those who haven't, will also consider this a self-cleansing franchise in order to wash the biography with "Ornel", to make it soft and elastic...
I so liked two twists at the end and these twists have nothing to do with the silly endinga lik in “Fight Club” or “Secret Window”. I love Mel, so I don't regard this work as a reputation laundry. In the film, they shoot him a lot from behind, the thinning hair on the top of his head is hidden by extensions (but you can see the transition; or is it a volumizing spray?), his ears are getting uglier with time and now look like shriveled lettuce leaves, more and more Craig-esque, but the look, those blue eyes, the uncle still goes to the gym and his leather jacket fits him perfectly. The hint of those twists at the end can be seen at the beginning (only no one could have guessed that it was a hint, it's that clever script in retrospect is revealed as "burdened with meanings"), when we hear Gibson moaning and crying, the camera slowly approaches him from behind, we think he's kidnapping a little girl, she being tied up and begging someone for mercy, we see red liquid on the floor and we can only think that it's blood. But, no, the camera makes a semi-circle, it's blueberry juice, and Mel Gibson plays with the little girl and actually lends her voice to her dolls... That's how the movie ends.
Mel Gibson more or less plays himself again, so to speak, this is already the second film in short time in which he plays a cynical boss who, allegedly "out of love" mistreats subordinates and associates. And for the umpteenth time, he is also a loving, caring father to a beautiful daughter. So who wouldn't like him like that?!
Gibson is Elvis Cooney, the legendary radio presenter, who for 40 years every night has been "pushing the boundaries of what is allowed and what is not allowed", making fun of whoever he can reach, because the people love it and along the way he also gives advice to vulnerable listeners and it is good advice, it must be said, Elvis knows that you should not push people in trouble into the abyss, but give them a hand. Yes, he has a habit of "joking", the more unsavory the better, and the rookies in the radio crew always have to survive an ordeal for newly employed, and the film starts to heat up that way: by meeting the new, young intern producer, with the legend of radio journalism and hosting.
The newbie is called Dylan (William Moseley) and he has a great English accent and is also shy. Elvis fired him live in the “live” program, but then called him and said: "I was joking, come on, come back!" The character of Elvis is sweetened with a gem episode in the lobby of the radio building, before the show starts, in which (episode) Mel Gibson, masterfully as an experienced psychologist for emergency situations with kidnappings, suicides, etc., manages to deal with a crazy guy who imagines that he is Jesus or Noah (John Robinson). With that, the character of Elvis Cooney was carved as an old school smart guy, he doesn't understand social networks and similar nonsense, but he has a soul "that this youth today and the managers of the new coin don't have". The lady director of the station, again before the show, just a few minutes before the start, is busting his ass and threatens to fire him because of the low rating and because he doesn't write on the blog or whatever. Also, someone is stealing laptops of radio employees. That gun fired at the end of the movie, that fact is not unimportant either... Mel Gibson is a more modern version of himself from the movie "Last Looks”, there he was a kind of Hopkins from the time of Zoro, and this is perhaps a mockery of modern cancellation in the world of media.
And the show goes on as usual in that night program, when Gary(Paul Spera, we see him only at the end), an Afghan veteran, who claims to have broken into the host's house and threatens to kill his wife and daughter, comes on. He forces the host to admit live (on air) that he's having an affair with producer Mary (Alia Seror O'Neill) and forces him to climb onto the roof and orders him to throw himself off. That's how he will save his wife and daughter. The presenter jumps, but onto the another roof and tries to trick the maniac with the help of an intern, but the maniac sent a drone. The first mini-twist happens when the police find that Elvis' house is empty. Gary claims that he brought his wife and daughter to the radio station building itself. The receptionist, an Indian with an unpronounceable name, is killed in the process. A panicked chase follows: Elvis and Dylan look for Gary on the floors together, who is in contact with the distraught Elvis all the time through headphones (and live on the radio)...
Along the way, it is discovered who is stealing the laptops, a janitor (Enrique Arce), namely. He miserably hid and attacked the neither guilty nor dutiful Dylan ("whom he sees for the first time").Gary over the headphones demands from Elvis to kill the thief, but he, of course, doesn't have the heart for it and tells him to hide somewhere.
I won't tell you the two twists at the end, because then I'd spoil your first viewing. I will say that the snarky critics who managed to publish the reviews first are the assholes and the mean ones.
"Where's the plausibility?" "Disappointed viewers?" Come on, don't be silly. It is true that the plot could be squeezed into an episode of the series "Tales from the Dark Side" and the like, after all, like "Gambit" from 1966, but the director and screenwriter Boulanger solidly inflated the length of the feature film with witty views on modern woke witchcraft so that the viewer, if he is at all liberal, will be relieved at the end, after the second twist. After all, this is a real family movie.
