I’ve felt mixed about Charlie Countryman ever since the first trailer was released some time ago. On the one hand, I was intrigued by the visual style and twisted narrative. At the same time, festival reviews for the film were really mixed. Then, of course, there’s the matter of Shia LaBeouf, a personal favorite of mine who hasn’t been on the best side of critical reviews due to his roles in the Transformers films and some of the missteps he made earlier in his career.
Nevertheless, I still held out hope for Charlie Countryman, and with it, LaBeouf’s true potential. Were my tempered expectations justified, blown away, or completely let down? Read on to find out.
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Charlie Countryman
Director: Fredrik Bond
Rating: R
Release Date: November 15, 2013
After Charlie’s (LaBeouf) Mom passes away, he sees a vision of her instructing him to go to Bucharest. On the plane ride there, he befriends the passenger sitting next to him on the plane who inexplicably dies. Once again, Charlie sees a vision of the man instructing him to deliver a message to his daughter, Gabi (Evan Rachel Wood). After Charlie delivers the message, he falls in love with her; unfortunately, she’s still legally married to a crime lord, Linus (Mads Mikkelsen). Before long, Charlie’s quest for Gabi’s love inserts him into the twist, seedy crime underbelly of Romania.
Charlie Countryman felt disjointed and messy in its direction. The film introduces Charlie as some sort of savant able to see the dead’s souls and their ghosts after death… then no mention of it is brought up ever again. What began as a whimsical, magical film soon degenerates into a drug-filled neo-noir romantic drama… thriller. I appreciate first-time director Fredrik Bond’s attempt to make not pigeonhole Charlie Countryman into one distinct genre. However, in doing so, he muddies the film’s direction and identity. There’s nothing wrong with manipulating genre conventions and finding interesting ways to play with them. The problem, though, is that a film needs a set vision.
Charlie Countryman is everywhere and nowhere at once. At its base, the film is a plodding romance film led by LaBeouf’s earnest performance. Say what you will about his personal life or his past films – Shia LaBeouf gives his all in every film he’s in, and is dedication and true belief in the Charlie Countryman character can’t be ignored. However, because of his earnestness, at least in this film, he’s unable to portray Charlie with subtlety. Maybe it’s due to the writing or Charlie’s character itself, but his character traits, especially with Gabi, come off as pitiful and desperate instead of lovingly. I’m a fan of LaBeouf, and I honestly believe his performance, no matter how many gripes I felt about it, is still one of the film’s lone highlights.
Rupert Grint (Harry Potter) makes a small appearance in the film to inject some “comedy” into the film. However, all Grint and cohort James Buckley (The Inbetweeners) do is check off “sex-crazed/drug-addled” scenes from Bond’s checklist. On the other side of the spectrum, Mikkelsen and Til Schweiger (Inglourious Basterds) are perfect as the antagonists/menacing threats that represent the “crime/thriller” portion of Charlie Countryman. Wood, meanwhile, dons a Romanian accent that works and doesn’t work at the same time. Was it necessary? No. Does it hurt that she uses it? Not really. Still, it would have been great to see her act without some type of gimmick holding her back.
It’s kind of fitting, then, that a film about the quest for love and discovery of self-identity is itself without an identity. Charlie Countryman tries to do too many things, yet doesn’t do those things well. Outside of some shoddy writing, the acting is a real highlight. Visually, the film is gorgeous and captivating; it’s just unfortunate that there’s no real meat to Charlie Countryman to back the cinematography up. If Bond had simply had a tighter scope or focus on the film, Charlie Countryman could have been a sleeper hit. Instead, it just might drive you to sleep.