‘Cleaner’ Review: A Pulse-Pounding Action Thriller Definitely Worth Your Time
Self-serious and kinetic but never distractingly so, there’s a sincerity to director Martin Campbell’s Cleaner that elevates it above its B-movie set-up. While it could have easily been a film destined to be forgotten in a streamer’s library, thanks to Campbell’s stylish direction, its antagonists’ empathetic motivations, and dedicated turns from not only star Daisy Ridley but also Matthew Tuck, Cleaner becomes more than the sum of its parts. It never shortchanges the pulse-pounding action that audiences may come for but also never uses its genre structure to dilute the dignity of its characters or the urgency of its themes.
Cleaner kicks into motion when a group of radical environmental activists, led by Marcus Blake (Clive Owen) breaks into the skyscraper of Agnian Energy, a company that prides itself on energy sustainability and environmental care. Incapacitating the building’s some 300 occupants thanks to the cooperation of service workers sympathetic to their cause (it’s an enlivening reversal to see the have-nots take charge), the activists are unaware that a window cleaner (and as is later, revealed, ex-military member), Joey (Daisy Ridley) evaded incapacitation and is attempting to save the hostages.
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The premise sounds very much like Die Hard in a different font. In contrast, there was an aura of intriguing mystery to John McClane, Campbell and his screenwriting team shift gears by fleshing out both Joey’s backstory and that of the eco-activists. This works wonders, as when the film switches from its ruminations on climate preservation to its fight scenes, we’re more invested and know the characters behind the carnage.
When we first meet Joey, it’s evident she’s the type of well-meaning but frazzled person whose most endearing instincts are always snuffed by chronic tardiness. As we witness her in the throes of her morning routine, flailing while attempting to prepare breakfast and brush her teeth at the same time, Ridley embodies this inner storm with a bumbling grace, making a montage of scrambling endearing when it could have easily come off as pathetic. Before she can make her way over to the Agnian building, she has to intercept her brother, Michael (Matthew Tuck) who has been kicked out of a caretaking facility; it’s a punishment for him hacking the facilities’ systems and realizes that they were stealing money from the people they were supposed to be looking after.
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Michael has high-functioning autism and Joey begrudgingly brings him to work, instructing him to sit in the lobby while she begins doing her cleaning rotations, promising to sort through the mess of their lives after her shift. Joey and Michael’s dynamic is a highlight of the film. Even though Joey is the superior fighter when the film embraces its action elements, Matthew is equally as resourceful and Tuck plays him as one who shades his fear with steely confidence.
It’s with the table setting of that fragile promise, that Campbell and screenwriters Matthew Orton, Simon Uttley, and Paul Andrew Williams, can distill the film’s themes in a nutshell, namely in how it explores how the underestimation of those deemed “lesser than” by the powerful and ignorant of the world will only result in cathartic comeuppance, especially for those who deem themselves beyond accountability. Cleaner is billed as an action film and while Joey eventually trades the squeegees and Windex for guns and explosives, it’s to its credit that the film is willing to explore the shades of differing motivations of the activists, showcasing how such volatile and personal work causes inherent friction in praxis.
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While Blake and his crew use violent force, they have a no-kill policy. By taking the most powerful in Agnian hostage, Blake hopes to force them to confess to their crimes, namely that their eco-friendly and environmentally conscious slogans are all farce and that they’ve been exploiting natural resources to expedite profits and killing any whistleblowers brave enough to speak out. Blake knows that if they murder those responsible, they’ll just be replaced by like-minded people and that the most efficient use of violence is to use it to threaten.
Noah (Taz Skyler), one of Joey’s coworkers secretly working with Blake’s crew, isn’t afraid to spill billionaire blood to make a point. There are extended sequences of Marcus and Blake butting heads and pistols about how to bring about lasting change. While it can get repetitive, it helps add nuance to the central conflict.
Noah’s anger towards exploitative companies is relatable. Sure its manifestation of the macabre and cruel doesn’t always do service to the complexity Skyler tries to imbue in the character (“your weird angry man YouTube rant” is what Joey humorously calls Noah’s manifesto where he tries to explain away his violent actions). But his anger is compelling enough that even as we root for Joey, it also wouldn’t be the worst alternative if his plan succeeded. It’s no How to Blow Up a Pipeline, but it’s refreshing to see the realities of climate change be explored seriously in an action flick like this.
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When Cleaner transitions to its action sequences they’re choreographed in a way that’s also in lockstep with the characters themselves. The fights are easy to follow and trace but lack the grace and ease of the ballet, overly staged action that has become commonplace in a project like this, and for good reason: these are characters for whom fighting is birthed from a primal desperation to survive at all costs. It’s not meant to be elegant but ruthlessly efficient and Ridley gets to shine as someone who is outnumbered and has to use everything around her to help her fight.
Campbell also smartly and cleverly uses a sense of scale to showcase the severity of the threat Joey faces while also using that as an excuse to show why she’ll have to handle this threat on her own. In one scene, when she’s stranded outside the windows and witnesses the takeover happening on the inside, she cries for help, and Campbell’s camera traces the arc of her scream, showing how as it descends, it becomes thinner and thinner before being lost in the bustle of the city life below. It’s the inclusion of these moments that make Cleaner the type of film that’s fun to watch thanks to how on board everyone is with the material at hand. It’s far from tidy, but its messy bits are features, not bugs.
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Cleaner
Summary
Thanks to stylish direction, empathetic antagonists, and dedicated turns from both Daisy Ridley and Matthew Tuck, Cleaner is a deeply enjoyable action thriller with a message.
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