A Working Man is a Messy Job Site that Just Punches the Clock

A Working Man

★ ★

A Working Man stars Jason Statham as Levon Cade, a construction foreman who is very close with the company owners Joe Garcia (Michael Peña), wife Carla (Noemi Gonzalez) and their 19-year-old daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas). In action movies like this, where a guy works a blue collar job, it’s imperative that we establish his highly specialized military background. We need this, because his combat expertise must make complete sense when he’s reluctantly called into action.

Jenny is kidnapped by a Russian mob so scary that people in the know shudder when they hear their name. The mob is linked to a much greater conspiratorial group called The Brotherhood to which it seems every crime syndicate answers. Honestly, the criminal organization’s hierarchy, and its link to powerful, extremely wealthy people, becomes too complex for a film like this.

Levon agrees to help Joe and Carla get their daughter back, because law enforcement is too inept to do their jobs correctly or care about the abduction at all. Perhaps the entire police force is under The Brotherhood’s thumb.

In addition to his bloody, bone breaking, bullet riddled quest, Levon is also in a custody battle for his daughter Meredeth (Isla Gie), or Merry as she’s known. Levon is a single parent because Merry’s mom – his wife – committed suicide. Dr. Roth (Richard Heap), Merry’s grandfather, has full custody of her and blames Levon for the suicide, citing years of psychological abuse.

If you don’t know what “plot armor” is, it’s a device used by writers, sometimes effectively, to keep a certain character alive because the story requires it.

Jenny has plot armor. We know this because she’d be dead or trafficked long before Levon can rescue her.

All this aside, the film is entertaining for about three-fourths its runtime. At some point, story and plot go out the window in favor of overcooked action scenes designed to make Levon heroic and allow Statham to flex his cinematic combat skills.

To give you an example, the tone is somewhat dark for an action film. It makes sense given the human trafficking element of the story. From out of nowhere, during a bar fight, Irish drinking music plays while Levon fisticuffs the tavern’s cardboard bad guys. It’s completely tone deaf to the rest of the film – striking a comedic element. When it played out, I knew this film was in trouble.

A Working Man started off promising but failed to get the job done.