Close is a 2019 action thriller about a bodyguard and counter-terrorism expert, who takes a job protecting a rich young heiress.
No one is going to accuse Noomi Rapace of being typecast, the highly gifted actor fitting like a well worn glove into a ridiculous slew of widely diverse roles. From action to sci-fi to everything in-between, she is one of the most prolific and talented women currently working in movies. And it’s entirely the reason anything works at all in director Vicky Jewson‘s latest thriller Close, a tense and often chilling action flick with its fair share of stumbles, saved primarily because of its star.
After a dramatic rescue where bodyguard Sam Carlson (Rapace) outwits and completely wrecks a kidnapping attempt, she is assigned a new client, that of Zoe Tanner (Sophie Nélisse). Zoe is the rebellious daughter of a recently deceased billionaire, who left all his shares in the company to his little girl, much to the irritation of his second wife Rima (Indira Varma). Zoe’s penchant for partying and sleeping with her ex-bodyguards makes her a troublesome lot, something Sam sort of embraces as her mission is to escort her to an isolated oasis property out in the desert. Unfortunately, Zoe’s a target for a kidnapping and sure enough, things go badly fast and it’s soon a race to save the girl and get her out of the country.
There’s no getting around a blisteringly good start, a set piece that plops us right into the best action moment in the film and quickly establishes the resourceful talents of Sam in a crisis. This fast-paced, adrenaline rush serves as an excellent gateway to what he hope will be more, and indeed, Jewson manages to find the mark a few more times, but never to the same degree or effect. This is, after all, a familiar story and there are landmarks the subgenre demands in which the film readily obliges. That means few things that happen are anything you don’t expect.
Zoe, under life-threatening circumstances, makes a quick decision in a terrifying moment that aligns her immediately with Sam, the two isolated and alone in a labyrinth of few possible survivable outcomes. It’s solid groundwork and sure footing that make for a perfectly entertaining 90 minutes even though it steers into a more pedestrian stride the more it moves forward, especially as it tries to heap more personal baggage on the lot and turn the camera onto the more corporate (and transparent) aspects of these women and their plight.
Despite that, Rapace is the film’s heaviest punch, handling the action with her usual powerful presence, doling out damage with great ferocity. While the story itself might have its gaps in logic and a number of contrived moments that don’t measure up, Rapace does her best to fill them all in with a crackling performance that keeps her, as always, endlessly fun to watch. Worth a look.