Wolfs director Jon Watts (left) with stars Brad Pitt (centre) and George Clooney. Photo: Supplied.
Expectations are high, and that’s unavoidable when a film features Academy Award winners George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Although Wolfs does not meet that anticipation, this action comedy has enough amusing repartee and friction between the two protagonists to keep you entertained.
The film’s plot is simple. Clooney (Syriana) and Pitt (12 Years a Slave, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) play cleaners for hire – of the criminal variety. The rivals, hired for the same job, are forced to work together to cover up a political scandal.
Their paths cross after both are called in to help cover up a prominent New York official’s slip-up. Over one explosive night, they have to set aside their egos – and petty grievances – to finish the job. These two have to change their lone-wolf habits and work together. What ensues delivers some fun moments.
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) plays the role of Margaret, a Manhattan district attorney, who panics after a young man (Austin Abrams, The Walking Dead) she met in a bar ends up dead in her hotel room. She calls a number given to her for just such an emergency and secures the services of an unnamed professional ”fixer”. He (Clooney) arrives to dispose of the ‘’Kid’’ who fell through a glass drinks cart while jumping on the bed.
Confusion prevails when they are interrupted by another unnamed fixer (Pitt) sent by the hotel’s mysterious owner, Pam, who saw everything via hidden cameras (now that’s an invasion of privacy!) Much to their chagrin, the women urge the two men to work together to protect the hotel’s reputation and Margaret’s career.
After initially refusing, the fixers reluctantly change their minds after Margaret reminds ‘’her man’’ that he is now on the surveillance footage and what she was told about him: “You take a job, you give your word, and that word is the measure of a man.”
By unwillingly joining forces, the fixers provide Margaret with an alibi, changing her clothes and sending her home. They find a large stash of drugs in the Kid’s bag, which Pam orders them to return to its original owners to avoid further trouble. Margaret’s man deftly moves the body to his car using a luggage cart, and the fixers discover the Kid is still alive but overdosing on the drugs.
Now they find their night spiralling out of control in ways neither of them expected!
Knocking the Kid out and stowing him in the car’s boot, the fixers suspect the drugs belong to a shipment recently stolen from the Albanian mafia. They bring the Kid to June (Poorna Jagannathan, Never Have I Ever), an underground medical specialist who has a history with them both, but the underwear-clad Kid escapes and leads them on a chase through the city. Catching him and sobering him up with pills from June, the fixers interrogate him at a dingy hotel. He explains that he agreed to deliver the drugs as a favour to his friend Diego but was invited up to Margaret’s room and tried the drugs on a whim.
Writer-director Jon Watts (best known for directing the Spider-Man films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe) brings a sense of balance to the two pivotal roles by the characters mirroring each other.
Clooney and Pitt haven’t exchanged names in the film. They tease the idea that they’ll swap names if they make it out alive after a long night of twists and turns. The names used to describe them are ”Margaret’s Man” and ”Pam’s Man”, based on the different characters who hire them for the job.
Watching the two A-listers interact is evocative of some of their winning previous roles together. They were seen in Burn After Reading, a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. However, their camaraderie was mainly evident in the Ocean’s caper films directed by Steven Soderbergh.
In Wolfs, the fixers cannot bring themselves to admit they have bonded over their many unspoken things in common, from clothes and guns to their bad backs and reading glasses.
The night’s events unravel with a surprise conclusion!
Wolfs, directed by Jon Watts, is streaming on Apple TV.
Loading ...
