Nobody

It’s probably fair to say that Nobody was looking for a Bob Odenkirk action movie, so it’s a surprise that this Ilya Naishuller action film is any good at all. But good casting always helps; what would be a trial to sit through with a lump like Steven Segal in the lead is something of a minor pleasure with Odenkirk doing his tough guy act; the broken soul we saw in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is something of a counterpoint to the dark horse we see here. Wylie E Coyote without the hubris, Saul Goodman is one of the streaming era’s great self-destructive characters; seeing Odenkirk change gear as an actor is a big part of Nobody’s appeal.

Hutch Mansell (Odenkirk) is a mild-mannered loser-dad; this sad sack can never figure out how to get the bins out in time for collection. One night, Mansell and his wife (Connie Nielsen) and kids are victims of a home invasion; Mansell has the drop on his assailant with the potential swing of a golf-club, but chooses instead to let the culprits go, and advises his son to do the same, much to the kid’s frustration. The cops sneer at Mansell’s weak defence of his family, but Mansell’s previous occupation as an ‘auditor’ hides his true vocation as an FBI assassin, and under that meek exterior is a man who knows how to focus havoc on the unwary…

Nobody gains an extra level through the casting of the empathetic Odenkirk, but Nobody owes a little too much to producer David Leitch’s other franchise, the John Wick universe which Nobody is projected to tie into as the franchise continues. That’s a bummer, because Nobody’s cheery, familiar package doesn’t turn the clichés inside out the way we expect from the Wick universe. There’s something specifically macho about the idea that nobody knows just how tough Mansell is until he’s pushed too far; from Death Wish onwards, we’ve seen this trope many times before. But while Mansell keeps himself in shape, we’re hitting comic book levels of cheese as Mansell takes out a busload of goons in the time-honoured manner of Sylvester Stallone in The Specialist or goes for a briefing from handler The Barber (Colin Salmon). Such off-the peg scenes have been risible clichés for decades, and haven’t improved much despite better crunchier punching and kicking techniques. Nobody is on firmer better ground when it presents its hero with a conscience; Mansell spares the underlings and goes after those at the top, which feels kinda right for today’s justice-avoiding times.

Nobody’s standard-issue plotting and tired male posturing land far short of the B-Movie classic it aspires to, but there is enough brisk action and some bonuses, largely through the casting of veterans like Michael Ironside and particularly Christopher Lloyd as Mansell’s dad. And Odenkirk playing against his expected type is the element here; as with the casting Bruce Willis in Die Hard, Odenkirk brings something recognisably human to the high table that no athlete, wrestler or macho man ever can.