Canada: Friday, August 20, 2021
Nationwide: Friday, August 20, 2021
Lionsgate
for strong and bloody violence, language, some sexual references and brief nudity.
Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody and trained in the family business, Anna is the world's most skilled contract killer. But when Moody - the man who was like a father to her and taught her everything she needs to know about trust and survival - is brutally killed, Anna vows revenge. As she becomes entangled with an enigmatic killer whose attraction to her goes way beyond cat and mouse, their confrontation turns deadly and the loose ends of a life spent killing will weave themselves ever tighter.
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Gregory M. - Rated it 2 out of 5
"The Protégé" Rescued as a child by the legendary assassin Moody (Samuel L. Jackson) and trained in the family business, Anna (Maggie Q) is the world’s most skilled contract killer. But when Moody, the man who was like a father to her and taught her everything she needs to know about trust and survival, is brutally killed, Anna vows revenge. As she becomes entangled with the enigmatic killer Rembrandt (Michael Keaton) whose attraction to her goes way beyond cat and mouse, their confrontation turns deadly and the loose ends of a life spent killing will weave themselves even tighter. Anna is immaculately skilled at dodging tricky enemies but can’t hide from her personal demons. She's a woman whose off-the-charts lethal abilities are second nature, but who's only just starting to reckon with who she's, where her powers came from and what she wants going forward. It's the story of a woman confronting her past, which comes around full circle, the way the past often does in our lives. Anna might be coolly efficient at her job, but she's no machine. She's great at what she does in part because she learned long ago what it takes to survive in a cruel world; learned to tap into a devastating deadliness out of sheer necessity at an age when most kids are at the playground. Growing up in Vietnam, Anna’s life nearly ended in a tragic massacre. Instead, she was raised by Moody, the elite American operative who took her in, encouraged her already steely instincts, and gave her all she would need to keep sharpening her mind and skills. It was Moody who showed Anna there was a way to cultivate her furious need to right the world’s many wrongs, and then he watched his protégé turn into one of the world’s most powerful tools for justice. But now, with Moody lost to a brutal hit they never saw coming, Anna finds a lifetime’s worth of carefully built armor crumbling. On the hunt to find and reckon with his killer, she's as plagued by ghostly memories as she is threatened by a non-stop barrage of blows and bullets. The film puts Anna in the middle of a cat-and-mouse chase with a killer just as proficient, intelligent and wise-cracking as she's, a chase that constantly shifts who's the cat and who's the mouse. At the same time she's also funny, whip-smart, seductive and able to navigate a storm of emotional chaos while she's unleashing physical chaos on those who threaten her or the people she loves. Anna’s journey back to her childhood origins feels unique to her. Despite being able to dispatch the most savage henchmen with a business-like professionalism, Anna is now in the most vulnerable moment she has faced since childhood. She wrestles with internal scars that she has never revealed to anyone. What makes Anna so interesting beyond being so strong and savvy is that, she’s a woman with extreme trauma trying to cope with that. She’s unusual in that she’s trying to come to accommodation with a deep sense of loss and hurt even while she’s hunting a killer. Moody has been a father figure to Anna for most of her life now. He becomes a father to Anna because, no matter his well-honed instincts as a loner, his heart won’t let him leave her alone in a tragic situation. They've this beautiful connection, like any daughter would with a father, but it’s a little more complex than most since what they share is being assassins. It’s definitely an unusual bond. The unusual relationship between Moody and Anna is part tight-knit, loving family members and part cut-throat assets-for-hire. Instead, he helps her to accept that though she has been forged by fury and loss she can build a whole new life. He sees she has a drive and a capacity for handling situations that most people don’t have. But he has them. So, he pulls her into his own violent world, and nurtures that part of her. But, at the same time, he sends Anna to the very best schools, and encourages her to develop that whole other academic, book-loving side that is a big part of her. Moody is actually really proud of who she has become. It’s an unusual relationship and not at all your typical father and daughter, but for them, it works. Moody himself is far from ordinary and with wide-ranging fascinations, a man who's as exhilarated by a vintage guitar as a precision weapon. Moody has a very eccentric personality outside of the spy world and you get to see a bit of that other persona when he’s at home with Anna. When their professional work is done, then he can be a father figure in another kind of way with her. He very seldom shows her that softer side of himself, but when he does it’s meaningful to both of them. In her drive to settle the score, Anna crosses paths with Rembrandt, who's every bit as sophisticated, savvy, and full throttle deadly as Anna. Though he comes into her life with an air of enticing mystery, he soon proves to be both a menace and a temptation. Anna and Rembrandt are both very smart and very powerful and when they meet it’s as if they've finally each met their match, in both senses of the word. The things that happen between Anna and Rembrandt aren’t going to happen in the average person’s daily life. Rembrandt is a mysterious kind of character. What you see isn’t always what you get. He’s intelligent he’s a realist in the sense that he totally understands and accepts the dangers of this world of assassins in which he lives. You've to believe that Rembrandt can be lethal, and you do. A breakneck pace, globe-trotting story with one surprise on top of another, non-stop opportunities for creative, kinetic action, and at it's center, an unconventional action hero who breaks the mold. The script offerers the chance to create the big, sleek, explosive set, but it also held the excitement of giving a dynamic lead character a role worth sinking her teeth into with relish. There’s lots of action, and there are some funny, sexy, complicated relationship dynamics. The movie never takes itself too seriously right up until the moment it's supposed to. When the film is dealing with serious themes, it’s in deep and it’s emotional. But when the film has lighter moments, it goes just as hard at having fun. A key desire is to keep a hardboiled naturalism at the center of the film, even while pulling off the kinds of rousing stunts and set pieces that define the summer blockbuster. "The Protégé" is a big, fun assassin movie, cool, has characters you’ll enjoy in an emotional story with surprises, and it offers a fun escape. It’s sheer entertainment.(2,5) written by Gregory Mann
