If this bodyguard thriller were direct-to-VOD, rather than Netflix, it’s the kind of film that we’d expect Steven Seagal to lead, playing the gruff security expert who softens in the presence of his young charge. But this is Netflix – which is pretty legit most of the time – and instead of Seagal and his ponytail, we get Noomi Rapace and her bun. “Close” is better than late-period Seagal from every angle, but it’s still a largely forgettable action movie that will likely get lost in the sea of original titles added to Netflix each month and will fade from memory if you do stumble upon it and press play.
Inspired by the life of real-world bodyguard Jacquie Davis who serves as the film’s security consultant (these stories might have made a better movie), “Close” does start off strong. We’re introduced to Sam (Rapace) in an unnamed African country, with gunshots as background music, and it’s easy to be in awe of her skill and professional prowess. So when she’s asked to, in essence, play babysitter to rich heiress Zoe (Sophie Nélisse) when the scars from her last gig are still healing, she’s less than thrilled. However, Zoe’s stepmother, Rima (Indira Varma), insists on a female bodyguard after Zoe got too close to her previous watcher. Zoe is a sequin-clad, tiny-dog-carrying, hard-partying brat, but she needs someone to accompany her to Morocco, where her late father’s mining company is based. But soon after her arrival, the elaborate security system at the family compound can’t keep her safe, and Sam will need to use all her skills to keep the two of them alive.
At first glance, what sets “Close” apart from “Man on Fire,” “Taken” and a dozen Jason Statham films is our protagonist’s gender. But as we’ve seen in other movies in the sub-genre, she’s still a flawed hero(ine) who still kicks ass. Smartly set to an all-female soundtrack led off by Kate Bush, “Close” has Rapace as a believable badass, whose quick thinking and experience make up for her slight stature. The dynamic between her and her client Zoe is different than we’ve seen before, which adds some intrigue. However, Nélisse is grating (both intentionally and not), wooden where audiences need emotion to invest themselves, and she’s not as much of an asset as she’s been in previous work like “The Book Thief.”
In its first act, “Close” is a competent thriller, buoyed by early action sequences from director Vicky Jewson and some really solid scene transitions that point toward a strong style. However, as the film goes on, it switches from the precision of a sniper rifle to the scattershot effect of a drunk-wielded machine gun. The editing in the action sequences is less comprehensible, and the script from Jewson and Rupert Whitaker grows less plausible and engaging as the progress bar inches toward the right. It’s predictable and then eye-rolling, as the film gets bogged down in a subplot around corporate competition. But where “Close” really fails both its characters and its audience is in Sam’s backstory, slowly revealed over its 90 minutes, but none of it is a surprise and seems like something students in a high school psychology class could have guessed with ease around the 15-minute mark.
In its efforts to be everything to everyone, Netflix has to release these rote action thrillers to please the people who binged “Jack Ryan” over on their competitor Amazon Prime Video. Not everything can be “Roma” or even “Bird Box,” but there’s a suggestion of a better movie in “Close” that makes it especially clear – and depressing – that Netflix is merely a content factory, churning out what it thinks someone wants to see. [C]