Even a skilled actor can’t save ‘Without Remorse’

Above: Michael B. Jordan stars in "Without Remorse." (Photo/Amazon Prime)

Movie review: "Without Remorse," directed by Stefano Solima, starring Michael B. Jordan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jamie Bell, Guy Pearce, Lauren Gordon. Streaming on Amazon Prime.

It should be abundantly clear by now that it takes far more than a charismatic leading actor to make an engaging and successful film.

Having a talented performer clearly helps. What would “The Adventures of Robin Hood” be without Errol Flynn? “The Wizard of Oz” without Judy Garland? “Fargo” without Frances McDormand? “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” without … well, Pee-wee Herman.

Less than they might have been, for sure. But each of those performances was enhanced by the work of skilled directors (from Michael Curtiz to Joel and Ethan Coen to Tim Burton), good production values and, just as important, competent, intelligently conceived screenplays.

So while Michael B. Jordan has proven himself to be a talented actor, with roles in such films as “Fruitvale Station,” “Black Panther” and “Just Mercy” on his resumé, even his ability to command the screen can’t help in the newest adaptation – or, to be precise, reimagining of – Tom Clancy’s 1993 novel “Without Remorse.”

Which leaves the blame for this particularly pedestrian movie not on Jordan’s, or the late Clancy’s shoulders, but on those of co-screenwriters Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples, not to mention those of director Stefano Solima.

In this Sheridan-Staples-Solima version of Clancy’s novel, Jordan stars as John Kelly, a Navy Seal who – when we first meet him – is part of a team sent into the Syrian city of Aleppo. The team’s objective is to find and recover a CIA operative who has been taken hostage. They do so, killing a number of people in the process – all of whom, Kelly and the others subsequently discover, are members of the Russian military. Uh-oh.

Three months later – we know this because the time frame is emblazoned across the screen – we watch as, one by one, members of Kelly’s team are killed. The mayhem extends even to Kelly’s wife (played ever so briefly by Lauren Gordon), though Kelly himself – despite being severely wounded – manages to kill all the attackers who have invaded his home … save for one.

This is the point at which the script departs from anything closely resembling reality. Through the efforts of his superior, Lt. Cmdr. Karen Greer (played by Jodie Turner-Smith), Kelly – miraculously healed from his multiple gunshot wounds – discovers the identities of the three men he killed … but not the fourth. He then goes after the soviet diplomat who issued passports to the attackers, and in a supremely visual – yet totally implausible – sequence involving a flaming car, gets the information he needs. And then, bang-bang, the diplomat, too, ends up dead.

Kelly, though, emerges unscathed and ends up in jail. It isn’t long, though, before he is able to spring himself by negotiating with a sketchy CIA agent (played by Jamie Bell) and Secretary of Defense Thomas Clay (played by Guy Pearce). His bargaining chip: the name and location of the fourth man, a former Russian special forces member named Victor Rykov who is hiding back in his home country.

And the implausibilities just keep coming. They include Kelly (showing no ill effects from his recent wounding) fighting off a platoon of correctional officers who invade his jail cell, Secretary Clay approving both approving a secret Halo-type mission to kidnap Rykov and allowing Kelly to tag along, a massive shootout in the streets of Murmansk that resembles a typical “Call of Duty” videogame mission – and an eventual, climactic unmasking of a traitor whose patriotic ardor is fueled by old-school Cold War fever.

At least the screenwriters got that Clancy attitude right. The author never did trust those giving orders.

It’s impossible not to compare “Without Remorse” to other, far better adaptations of  Clancy’s work: John McTiernan’s 1990 film “The Hunt for Red October," for example, or Philip Noyce’s two efforts, both starring Harrison Ford, 1992’s “Patriot Games” and 1994’s “Clear and Present Danger.” We might even include the recent Amazon Prime series, “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” starring John Krasinski.

Part of what makes those films so good is, obviously, the casting of such actors as Ford, Krasinski, Sean Connery, James Earl Jones, Anne Archer and so on. Even more important, though, are the filmmaker themselves, not just the directors but screenwriters such as Oscar winners Donald E. Stewart and Steven Zaillian – not to mention everyone else from the cinematographers to the production designers, gaffers and best boys.

“Without Remorse” director Solima has his own credentials, having directed – among other things – 2018’s “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and 10 episodes of the Italian crime series “Gomorrah.”

But his talents – like those belonging to Jordan – are just not enough to overcome the ration of ridiculousness that Sheridan and Staples put on the page.