Motor City

 

In 1977 Detroit, blue-collar ex-con John Miller (Alan Ritchson) looks forward to starting a new life with Sophia (Shailene Woodley), but her jealous gangster ex-boyfriend Reynolds (Ben Foster) has other ideas. To get Sophia back, he frames Miller for a crime, sending him to prison and on a quest for revenge.

Director Potsy Ponciroli’s stylish action film weds a standard revenge plot to an approach that is anything but. Motor City’s dialogue is minimal to the point of near-nonexistence while its soundtrack – mostly 70s rock – is omnipresent. This calls to mind Walter Hill’s “rock opera” Streets of Fire, but it’s a grittier, bloodier affair. To be certain, it’s gimmicky, and some of the pantomiming does get to be a bit much. However, for two thirds of the movie, it works surprisingly well.

A lot of that success comes down to some smart choices. The music aids the visual storytelling as do the period details (retro clothes, retro cars, everybody smokes). It also helps that the cast’s prior work helps to shade their characters in the absence of dialogue. Foster has played plenty of twitchy, vicious lowlifes while Ben McKenzie, notable as James Gordon in Gotham, again takes up the mantle of an honest cop on a corrupt force. For his part, Ritchson sells both anguish and cold fury. There's also the added amusement of Detroit native Jack White playing Christmas music on a piano. 

Unfortunately, Motor City’s magic does not last forever. The final third devolves into excess and cliché. As the stakes escalate, so too does the mayhem, albeit in a cartoonish, pull out all the stops way that undermines the more grounded drama that preceded it. A time-skip ending featuring dubious old-age makeup doesn’t help matters.

While Motor City’s premise and unevenness limit its appeal, when it works, it’s pulpy, propulsive fun.