HUMMINGBIRD/REDEMPTION
UK, 2013, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jason Statham, Agnes Buzek.
Directed by Stephen Knight.
Hummingbird, also called Redemption, is something of a different star vehicle for Jason Statham. An Olympic athlete, he emerged as the star of gangster films, especially Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. From 2000 he made a great number of films, like the Transporter series, as well as films in the UK and in the United States. Eventually, he could become the assistant to Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables films.
This film was directed by Stephen Knight, better known as a writer of such grim films as Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises.
The action of the film is confined to the area around Shaftsbury Avenue in London, Soho and Chinatown. It shows the life of the people on the streets. It also shows the exploitation of women, especially by sadistic rich businessmen.
After serving in Afghanistan, with which the film opens, there are many flashbacks, Statham’s’s character, Joe, is mentally disturbed, living on the streets where he goes to a soup kitchen where food is served by a nun, Sister Cristina, played by Agnes Buzek. Connection grows between the two, especially with the investigation of the death of a young girl whose body is found in the river. She has quite an effect on him. And he has an effect on her – she also has a somewhat limited background which she explains to him which means that there is some ambiguity as to whether she will stay in the convent or not.
A different kind of Jason Statham movie – but with many of the regular ingredients.
1. A Jason Statham action film, or more? The indication of the titles? The symbols of the hummingbirds? The Sisters of Redemption? What redemption for Joe? For Cristina?
2. The London settings, the specific focus on Soho, Chinatown, Covent Garden? Night and day? Authentic feel? The contrast with the affluent apartment? The convent? Restaurants, the visit to the ballet? The musical score?
3. The opening in in Afghanistan, Joe, his role in the military, the attacks, the deaths on the transports? The accusation of the assassin? Joe accompanying him through the town, people calling out that he was innocent? The effect on Joe, mental, nightmares, continually remembering the episode?
4. Joe, his return, sleeping on the streets, mental difficulties? The two men coming into the street, attacking the street sleepers, in their cardboard boxes, the girl and her head-butting and escaping, Joe and his being bashed?
5. Joe and his being chased by the men, opening the skylight, going into the apartment? Luxurious? Fixing himself up, the shower, taking the clothes? The couple at the door, his saying that he was the owner’s boyfriend? The apartment as a base? The letters, the credit card, his taking the money?
6. Sister Cristina, from Poland, the convent and the community, the superior? The soup kitchen? Her friendship with Joe? The girls on the street? In civilian dress? Going home to the convent? Joe’s gift of money, her giving it to the superior, her being allowed to use it for something of herself, paying for the box at the ballet? Her hopes of being a ballerina? The father’s brutality, wanting her to do gymnastics, the sexual harassment by the instructor, her injury, her killing him? Being sent to the convent, to England? Her wanting to work in Africa? The friendship with Joe, his bringing her the red dress, the outings, the discussions, the information about Isabel’s death? Her going to the ballet, to Joe’s apartment, the previous kiss, telling the story, the sexual encounter? The owner returning home? The effect on her, return to the convent, still wanting to go to Africa? Yet willing to be with Joe?
7. Joe, contact with the girls, confronting the brutal men, getting the information about Max Forrester, the audience seeing him, his brutality towards the girls, sadistic, deaths? The leads? Identification, at the ballet, Joe confronting him, throwing him from the building?
8. The effect of all this on Joe, some kind of recovery, some kind of redemption, yet his decision to work for the Chinese, the interviews, the delivery of the drugs, the encounter with the seedy characters? The encounter with Cristina and its effect on him? His future?
9. Cristina, her future, staying as a nun, working in Africa?
10. The contrast between the seedy Soho, the devout life of the convent, the wealthy, the poor in the street? The mixture of action show with personal themes?
