Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Director: Stefano Sollima, Amazon Prime.
The gist of the film is easy to comprehend: angry US Navy SEAL seeks revenge after his pregnant wife is brutally murdered on US soil. However, a misleading notion sets in when it comes to answering questions about who killed her, why and what this had to do with the U.S. government.
Based on Tom Clancy’s 1993 bestseller, Michael B Jordan (Just Mercy, Black Panther) plays Senior Chief John Kelly whose wife is the one killed.
In Aleppo, a team of SEALs including Kelly, rescue a CIA operative taken hostage by a suspected pro-Assad paramilitary group. The situation escalates as the SEALs discover that the captors are actually Russian military. Three months later, in what is an apparent retaliation for their role in the mission, several members of the team are killed by Russian FSB operatives. Kelly’s wife, Pam, is murdered when they break into their house. Then he kills all but one of the attackers before being rushed to the hospital with near-fatal wounds.
Without Remorse is essentially a revenge story that moves in one direction. John is allowed back into the field on a deniable ‘black ops’ payback mission. His friend and ally Karen (Jodie Turner-Smith, Queen & Slim) has John’s back and defence secretary Clay (Guy Pearce, L.A. Confidential) slightly approves of his courageously unusual methods.
On the other hand, shifty CIA chief Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot) seems to be running some kind of side-hustle which involves appeasing the Russians.
There’s plenty of action, should you choose to watch it, and stabs in the back for the establishment. Not much sparkle in the authenticity department, but monologues are Kelly’s specialty, and there’s an option for a franchise where the superhero fights crime and/or evil.
