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| Saturday, July 5, 2008 10:53 AM |
| On the Viewer - Hancock |
 by Fëanor |
I'd been looking forward to Hancock since I first saw ads for it months ago, so I was pretty disappointed and worried when the early reviews were generally negative. But poppy and I went to see it this holiday weekend anyway, and we actually both really enjoyed it. What perhaps confused and annoyed some of the reviewers is that even though there's a superhero in the movie, it's not really a superhero film. It's actually a romantic comedy/drama centering on three characters: a mysterious super-powered asshole named Hancock (Will Smith); the man who becomes Hancock's PR agent, Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman); and Ray's wife, Mary (Charlize Theron). As the film opens, Hancock is more a menace than a hero. He's a drunk and a disgusting slob, and whenever he shows up to do good or fight crime, he causes enormous amounts of property damage and pisses off everyone in the process. Then one day he saves the life of a struggling PR man, the genuinely nice Ray, who sees the good in everyone and wants to change the world for the better. When he meets Hancock, he sees a would-be hero with a serious image problem, and resolves to help him - and through him, change the world. Hancock is resistant at first, but is moved by Ray's trust in him, and by the adulation he receives from Ray's cute, gentle son, Aaron. As Hancock starts following Ray's advice and begins changing himself for the better, all seems well - but Mary is worried about Ray's new client, and a strange relationship begins to develop between her and Hancock. Meanwhile, old enemies of Hancock - criminals he's shamed or put away in jail - wait in the wings, ready to pounce the moment he shows any sign of weakness.
Hancock has the basic Superman powers: extreme strength, invulnerability, the ability to fly. But it turns out he also doesn't age; that in a way, he's the eternal protector of the planet (in fact the story reminds me a bit of that of The Eternals, a Marvel comic book series that was recently relaunched). Ray asks him about his past, and keeps trying to turn Hancock's origin story into that of your typical superhero: surely he's from another planet? Or he was experimented on in a government hospital? Or a meteor of some kind was involved? But no. Hancock just woke up like this one day, with no memory of what had come before. No one came to the hospital to claim him, and he's never really gotten over that. Alone and rejected by the world, he rejected the world right back.
There's lots of fun action (like when Hancock stops a hostage situation at a bank), cool superpower stuff (like when Hancock shaves with his bare hands), and some very funny comedy, but mostly the movie is about Hancock learning to stop hating himself and everyone else; Hancock learning to live with himself in the world. In the climactic scene, Hancock realizes the only way to protect the people he loves is to go far away from them, and with an enormous effort, fighting himself physically and emotionally, he does just that. It's an extremely powerful and moving scene, and it works so well thanks to good writing, character development, and great performances all around, especially from Smith. Bateman is especially funny, though also occasionally annoying, and Theron is very good, besides also being smoking hot. Oh, and a fun bit of trivia: two of the executives that appear in an early scene where Ray is pitching his All Heart idea are played by producer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman and producer/director Michael Mann.
I could see them doing a prequel or a sequel to this film pretty easily, and I could even see how such films could be very good, but Hancock doesn't have to be the start of another superhero franchise; it stands by itself quite well as a very entertaining, funny, and touching film about some very interesting characters. |
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