Cleaner is an unassuming Die Hard copy with B-movie energy
Cleaner is the type of B-movie matinee you watch while getting ready to meet friends for dinner, or a mysterious title on your streaming platform’s home page that you indifferently hit ‘play’ as you finish the NY Times crossword before heading to bed, only to find yourself having not solved a single clue ninety-five minutes later. You’ll rarely seek the film out, but you’ll welcome its breezy distraction. Cleaner is co-directed by executive producer Sébastien Raybaud (Femme) and Martin Campbell, but the latter’s surefootedness as an action director enables Cleaner to rise above its ham-fisted script. Campbell’s filmography includes iconic brand re-launches like The Mask of Zorro, Goldeneye, and Casino Royale, silly B-movie spectacles like Vertical Limit and The Foreigner, and a few cringe-y flops like Beyond Borders and The Green Lantern. Cleaner fits within the second grouping: a silly actioner with its entertainment value and narrative absurdity evenly matched.
Don’t get me wrong, Cleaner is not a “good” movie. The plot closely parallels that of Die Hard, but in Cleaner, the setting is London, the terrorists are radical environmental activists, the event is an energy company’s annual gala (hence being targeted by the environmental activists), and most importantly, the John McClane stand-in is an ex-soldier-turned-window cleaner, Joey Locke (Daisy Ridley). Locke is at the right place at the wrong time, and must utilize her skillset to thwart the idealist hostage-takers and save her autistic brother, Michael, who happens to be on the same floor when it’s sieged (à la Holly Gennaro McClane in Die Hard). There’s no shortage of Die Hard rip-offs, but what keeps Cleaner operating above its predictable plot and unrealistic silliness is its swift pace, committed performances, and steady direction.
The activist group is led by Marcus (Clive Owen) and Noah (Taz Skylar). Owen, Skylar, and Ridley know exactly what type of film they’re in (see my opening line re: B-movies), so they play their parts with the right balance of sincerity and self-awareness. Skylar, in particular, delivers the script’s most absurd dialogue, hamming it up in every scene he’s in. Daisy Ridley is having a strong resurgence after the disappointing finale to the latest Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker. Breaking away from being pigeon-holed as her Star Wars character, Rey, Ridley gave a strong performance in last year’s inspiring sports drama, The Young Woman and the Sea, and impressively holds her own while leading Cleaner. After all the lightsaber battling in Star Wars, she’s no stranger to action, but she adds a steely-eyed gravitas to the character of Locke, making it easy for the audience to root for her.
Aside from a handful of digitally-aided sequences of Locke suspended outside a building, don’t expect to see much wide-angle spectacle in Cleaner. The film was made on a modest budget: the majority of the cast are unknown, and the action is mainly confined to interior rooms and hallways. But the most appreciable quality of a movie like Cleaner, when directed by a skilled action filmmaker like Campbell, is that the filmmaking team isn’t trying to imbue the script with deeper meaning. For an audience member, there’s an oft-overlooked satisfaction in watching a well-made bad movie, and not having to think about it afterwards. No metaphors. No extensive critical analysis. Nothing in the film tries to teach us anything new. Even when the terrorists make arguably valid points about bringing environmental degradation’s biggest culprits to justice, we remember that our hero is still a window cleaner, for crying out loud!
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Cleaner opens in theaters on Friday, February 21st.
