Saying there is nothing original in movies now is itself as battered a cliche as the very thing it criticizes, even if there is truth behind the meaning. Surely, we understand that there are only so many variations on a theme possible and we go to certain films because that is precisely what we want to see and feel, the problem being that what we really want to see and feel is something we like for the first time again. This is the souring dilemma of nostalgia. We all want to go to a movie like it’s the very first time.
So, films like director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan‘s latest action thriller Kate is piled on the heap of movies ‘we’ve all seen before’ and sure a lot of it is familiar. What isn’t in life these days? But let’s not be too dismissive, as we’ve all become lately with mass media. Kate is a quality experience for those who like this sort of thing, with its only genuine flaw being that it stands on the shoulders of many that came before it. That being understood, it remains one not to be missed because if anything, it solidifies that its star is ready to take her place among the top action heroes of the genre.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is no stranger to action movies, but it’s with Kate that she reaches for the baton and sprints forward as a name we ought to have right on the tips of our tongues when it comes to making lists of the greats. That may sound overly-hyped of her performance, but it deserves high praise if for anything, her fearless leap off the cliff into the fray of it all. She’s a powerful presence in the film and I dare say if it not for her, and say cast with a generic male lead, would be entirely forgettable.
The story goes like this. As a top female assassin, Kate (Winstead) is in Japan taking down a top yakuza target. Unfortunately, she is forced to do so with a child (Miku Patricia Martineau) standing right next to him. This inspires her to tell her handler, Varrick (Woody Harrelson) that after the next assignment, she’s done. Feeling ready for the next chapter, she meets a handsome stranger at a hotel bar and the two head up to his room for a little wine and a lot of sex. Later, as she readies herself to kill her last mark, she stumbles and misses, soon realizing she’s been poisoned. Who didn’t see that coming? Now, with only a few hours to live, she’s out to find out who did it and get revenge. Screw the why.
So you’ve read all that and made a mental checklist of all the things that you’ve actually seen in movies before. I know. It’s a long list. And I agree. But where Nicolas-Troyan’s film succeeds, aside from some very well-paced and expertly choreographed action, is his attention to Kate and the subtle performance of Winstead. I was immediately drawn in to what she was doing with Kate, a fierce but weathered woman at the start, revealing that her position as an assassin is not only earned, its part of her DNA. Kate only knowns death, and when she is faced with her own, it’s not about reflection or sorrow or regret, it’s about retribution. Cold, hard, brutal, retribution. There’s a lot of dead guys is what I’m saying.
What works about that is how convinced we become of her abilities. Pumped up with stimulants to keep herself going, she takes on a kind of crazed, blind indignation about her killing spree, utterly fearless of death because that is the end no matter what. It’s just how many can she take down before it comes. There is a sensational fight in a secreted Japanese restaurant that should go down as companion to many others of the like, including, which I hesitate to compare as it is landmark, the hallway battle in Oldboy. Yes, Park Chan-wook‘s defining sequence is legendary and one of the greatest on-screen fights movie history, but my point is that what Winstead accomplishes in this lengthy segment is at least worthy of comparison. It’s raw, gruesome, charged with consequence, and as she slams through each shōji to the next room, filled with expectation. I watched it once for the thrill of it. Rewound again and watched it for the technical achievement of it, then once more time because dang it, it’s that good.
Why? Because Winstead carries it on her shoulders like she’s proving to the whole damned world that it’s her turn to bust things up, you’d better be paying attention. She’s does that the entire film, and by the time she gets us to the end, we love her for it, even as we know Kate’s real fate. So put your eyes on the movie and stop wasting your time working to not like it because it reminds you of something else and put your energies on Winstead and the terrific work she does in becomes one this generation’s best action stars. Thank you Ms. Winstead. I salute you.