Egerton can’t prevent ‘Shotgun’ from firing blanks
Nate McClusky, the punkish antihero at the center of the father-daughter shoot-’em-up “She Rides Shotgun,” is a devout believer in the philosophy “You gotta get weak to get strong.” The actioner’s still-wet-behind-the-ears director, Nick Rowland, apparently concurs, except he’s mired in the feeble side of the equation, helming a film that aspires, but struggles, to acquire said muscle.
It’s like Popeye deprived of his spinach, as Rowland wraps spindly arms around the weighty concept of an ex-con making amends with his precocious 10-year-old daughter, while ducking heavy fire from cops and a gang of vengeful neo-Nazi meth-cookers. He gets the casting right, with “Rocketman’s” Taron Egerton as Nate and nepo baby Ana Sophia Heger (daughter of Emmy-nominated actor Rene Heger) as Nate’s estranged offspring, Polly.
But, like us, Rowland, in his sophomore outing, can’t make head nor tail of a pointless narrative conceived by a trio of writers caught in a limbo between heartfelt domestic drama and bloody revenge thriller. The dramatically divergent themes are akin to hot sauce and ice cream, and it only gets worse when an over-the-top John Carroll Lynch enters the fray as a corrupt New Mexico sheriff doubling as the kingpin of the Southwest’s most notorious drug cartel.
You persistently question why his Houser, aka “God of Slabtown,” is devoting so much time, energy and expense in pursuit of a two-bit thug whose insignificance is matched only by his ineptitude. Heck, the guy can’t even knock over a convenience store without it escalating into a Wild West gunfight. What threat is he to a “God”? The film never provides a satisfactory answer, but you mindlessly go with it, due in no small part to the oddball synergy Egerton and Heger create while dodging bullets and sharp implements en route to the promised land of Mexico.
It’s never a question of “will they make it” as much as “what implausible obstacle will they confront next”? Besides Houser and his minions of incompetent shooters, we also get the deceptive ex-girlfriend in Odessa A’zion’s Charlotte, a rampaging lug in Travis Hammer’s Felix, and a rogue Santa Fe detective in Rob Yang’s John Park, who has more on his mind than just capturing Nick.
Inanity abounds, as we’re asked to believe neither Houser nor law enforcement is capable of snaring a none-too-bright career criminal accused of kidnapping Polly after murdering her mother and stepfather. Be it wild car chases, multiple firefights (with Polly caught in the crossfire), or savage guard dogs, the duo remains elusive, until … well, we’ll leave it at that.
The action scenes are preposterous but intense, even gripping at times. But the banter between Egerton and Heger is trivial at best. The goal is to pluck at our heartstrings, but there’s not nearly enough depth to Polly’s relationship with a dad who’s been behind bars most of her life. You’d like to hear them address her feelings of abandonment and shame over having a con for a dad, but Rowland and his gang of writers frustratingly never go there.
Egerton and Heger are good at overcoming the script’s limitations, but they can only distract for so long before it all begins to feel like a cheat. And at two hours, it’s not like Rowland didn’t have the time to better flesh out the characters. All he needed to do was jettison a handful of repetitive scenes of Nick and Polly dodging and fleeing violent confrontations, which curiously seem to accentuate child endangerment.
It renders the movie more of a slog than escapist excitement. Yet, I can’t say I wasn’t mildly wowed by the sparkling star power. And with a more judicious editor, “She Rides Shotgun” (hate that uninspired title) might have been less in need of a fix. Or, as they say in “meth-ology,” a few tweaks short of getting you high.
Movie review
She Rides Shotgun
Rated: R for violence and language
Cast: Taron Egerton, Ana Sophia Heger, Rob Yang, John Carroll Lynch and Odessa A’zion
Director: Nick Rowland
Writers: Jordan Harper, Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski
Runtime: 120 minutes
Where: In theaters Aug. 1 (limited)
Grade: C+
