We all like Bruce Willis. That’s a given. I mean, the guy’s practically an institution, and no true movie fan’s gonna shrug off the man who done brought us John McClane. Yippie Kay-Yes! However, he’s taken a bit of flack of late for a string of subpar performances in a series of low-budget action movies that some have suggested prove he just doesn’t give a hoot anymore. And to be accountable, I’ve jumped on that train more than once. But let’s not get too down on the man. We’re living in changing times. The once golden days of triple A movie stars is quickly going the way of the Dodo and so who can blame Willis and many others from his generation still trying to make a buck in an industry that’s less interested in the actor on the marquee than the lucrative digital distribution rights.
That said, this isn’t gonna be one of those lazy “better than you think” or “5 reasons blah blah blah why this movie is underrated” posts (I’ve sort of already done that for Mr. Willis). Instead, we’re here to talk about a Bruce Willis film you’ve probably have never heard of, or at best, long forgotten. It’s called Mercury Rising and it’s not really a good movie, at least not as good as it seems all dressed up to be. And yet … geesh I’m kinda sorta on the fence here … and so, I’m gonna talk my way through it and see where we end up.
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: We open on a bank robbery gone sour. Inside, a man named Edgar (Richard Riehle) is running out of options. He’s the leader of a small family of militia types – including two teen boys – holding the bank staff and customers at gunpoint. He’s on the phone with negotiators, including the FBI. Things are not going well and tensions are leading authorities to suit up and prepare to blast their way in. One minor issue though. One of the members of the robbers is a fella named Art Jefferies (Willis). He’s an undercover FBI agent, and he’s struggling to convince Edgar to give up. No can do though and with a trigger happy FBI man outside, the call is made at the worst possible moment and guns come in blazing. In the aftermath, the robbers, including the teen boys are killed, and Art is demoted, kicked off undercover duty and sent to the basement. Dem’s the breaks.
Not long after, a little boy named Simon (Miko Hughes) is solving puzzles in his new activity book. He finds a message in one of the more difficult sets and calls the phone number it offers. Turns out, it’s not a promotional giveaway but direct access to a secret NSA group that have created what they think is an uncrackable code, never expecting its placement in a “geek” magazine would lead to anyone solving it … let alone a nine-year-old child. Who, it should be said, is Autistic. The leader and division chief of the project is Lt. Colonel Nicholas Kudrow (Alec Baldwin), who, by no surprise, is not a happy camper when he learns that his multi-million dollar unbreakable cryptograph got beat by a kid. Worse, by one he thinks is not all that put together. In a word: Unacceptable! His solution? Duh. Murder the boy and his parents, obviously. What? You think he was gonna give him a lolli? But uh-oh. While mom and dad sadly meet the bad end of a bullet, Simon hides out, and soon enough, he’s under the protection of Jefferies, who is at first way over his head just trying to understand the boy at all let alone why anyone would want to kill him. But don’t worry, it doesn’t take long before he’s crackin’ heads while uncovering the truth about a rogue megalomaniac hell bent on covering his tracks.
REVIEW: The 90s were chuck full of movies like this, standard action thrillers with a big name star battling their way through impossible odds. Heck, Willis practically established the genre before he was even a movie star and spent the decade doubling down on the premise doing it over and over. With Mercury Rising, he’s got himself a familiar role and naturally, he slips right into it like a well-worn glove. And yeah, I’ll just say it: It’s humanly impossible not to see John McClane whenever Willis is on screen here. The way he holds a gun (classic). The way he moves (confidence much?). The way he scowls at bad guys (don’t lie and say you never tried in the mirror). Grrrr. Art Jefferies? Are you kidding? It’s just wrong. Wrong, I say. But that’s what we’ve got.
Fortunately, Willis was still in his gives-a-crap-about-my-career phase and doesn’t for a second phone any of this in. He’s energetic, motivated, funny, and more than a little compelling. Honestly, after a long period of dull Willis appearances these days, it’s a little emotional to look back at something beyond the Die Hard movies and see him … well … acting. Remember that?
Either way, the story is … eh … not so bad. It’s based on a book called Simple Simon by Ryne Douglas Pearson, and adapted for the screen by the celebrated writing team of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. Their use of an Autistic child might not be all the original, but it’s got some legs to it here and the set up is clever if not all that well executed. We aren’t given much to know about Simon, aside from some conventional stuff like how he doesn’t fit in at school and tends to like only doing math stuffs (but by golly, there’s not a single class bully anywhere to be found! I thought that kind of thing was contractually obligated in movies about … um, any child). Simon’s story is watered down and fairly conventional, but Hughes is very convincing throughout, a feat not all that easy to pull off. This is a grounded and highly believable performance that helps a lot in keeping the hooks in place. I mean, it’s not Arnie Grape great, but still pretty danged good.
However, Baldwin is your standard cardboard cutout nemesis with nothing of any flavor to add. There’s a subplot with a couple of cronies under Kudrow, who try to do the right thing but end up funneled to a predictable end. And then there’s the wonderful Kim Dickens, who shows up way late in the story, dragged into it all with almost no credibility behind it, her agreement to Jefferies’ request when they meet so ludicrous it smacks of desperation to find some way to get a girl in the story. And then she’s ultimately wasted, which is too bad cuz, you know, Dickens is the best and deserves so much more than what she mostly always gets. I’m watching this and thinking, I almost (almost) wish she were the FBI agent and Willis wasn’t even in the story. I’m a Kim Dickens fan.
There are a couple of pretty solid actions setpieces, the best being a bit with a car chase that end ups on a train that surely has its roots in a dozen other flicks, but is well developed and played out. It features a brief appearance from Peter Stormare, who should have really had more time on screen, but does his thing right, oh so fleeting as it is. Also, must MUST mention the score by the legendary John Barry (James Bond theme, Dances With Wolves) and Carter Burwell (Fargo, Being John Malkovich), which lingers with a kind of mournful angst throughout, lending a surprising amount of depth where needed. Music counts a lot in a movie like this.
By the wrap up, the blandly named Mercury Rising is an entertaining but forgettable watch. You can see so much promise in its early stages, with a smart set up and a its introduction to a couple of interesting characters in Jefferies and Simon. Yet film lacks the larger gut punches along the way though, the relationship between the hard-nosed FBI agent and the vulnerable boy never really bound by the conflict they are in, but rather a set of manipulated contrivances that force their bond by its end with too much obvious setup and knockdowns. The thing is though, you want to get invested, and you feel for the kid as things progress, but there’s a kind of emptiness to the middle of it all as the movie clings to the genre clichés instead of experimenting with something more … more … what am I searching for? … personal, I guess.
CREDITS ROLL: So there we are. Mercury Rising. It’s not that bad. There’s more better to it than I expected, and while it feels like another Die Hard wannabe, seems to know it and does what it can to make that stick. Willis shows off why he was so dependable back in the day and it feels great to see him in his prime. There’s not much in terms of creativity, at least with direction, but the story is just smart enough to keep it a step above most in the trenches and there’s not a bad performance in the lot. Rent it? Stream it? Yippie Kay-Yes.