new to DVD: Snitch

Snitch is a good movie with a good actor in the lead, but because of his persona, it is the wrong good actor.

I have to be very careful here, because my central argument is going to sound like the assertions of a closed mind. So let me preface my complaint about Snitch by stating that I usually admire actors who try to break from the mold created by their personas. Wacky comics want to prove their credibility by appearing in heavy dramas? Fine! Serious actors want to prove their sense of humor by appearing in wacky comedies? Great! Likable nice-guys want to have some fun by suddenly playing despicable villains? Works for me! Oscar nominees want to cash in on big-budget, dumb-but-fun action movies? More power to 'em!

Ah, but when action heroes try to go the other way and prove themselves as serious dramatic actors? With Bruce Willis as possibly the only exception, that particular career switch has always been harder to accept. I have no idea why, but it's true. Arnold Schwarzenegger was wise enough to accept and acknowledge this when he poked fun at the idea of himself playing Hamlet in Last Action Hero. It's a lesson yet to be learned by Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson.

Snitch tells the story of a teenage kid who, against his better judgment, agrees to accept delivery of a package of drugs for a friend of his. In a plot twist/ legal loophole that is really hard to see as anything but a clear case of entrapment, the whole thing turns out to be a set-up by the DEA, and the next thing you know, the kid's facing a lengthy jail sentence.

Enter the kid's father. The DEA offers to reduce the kid's sentence from 10 years to 6 months if he'll only rat out a drug dealer or two, but the kid really is as innocent as he claims, and he doesn't know any drug dealers. So the father offers an alternative: Despite his own complete lack of a criminal background, he agrees to go undercover for the DEA in exchange for the reduced sentence for his son. Not surprisingly, the father soon finds himself way, way over his head.

Sounds like the set-up for a great action movie, right? But this isn't an action movie; it's actually a pretty straight-forward crime drama, and although there are a small number of action scenes, they are too few and far between to really qualify this as an action movie.

Dwayne Johnson can call himself Dwayne Johnson all he wants, but even if that is his birth name, Mr. Johnson has to learn that to movie audiences, he will always simply be "the Rock." This is not his fault. The Rock is actually a good actor. He can be sufficiently charming, funny, menacing, or sympathetic as the needs arise. But he has carefully built up a persona as an action hero, and other than his decision to start going by his real name instead of his WWE wrestling name, he has done little to challenge that persona.

That's why he's so wrong for a movie of this type. It's not that he gives a bad performance, but he is just wrong for the role of the father. Everything about the character, right down to the deliberately generic name of "John Matthews," screams out for an "everyman" type actor, and the Rock may be many things, but he is not an everyman.

If you rent a movie starring the Rock in the leading role, you know what you want to see. You want to see the Rock kicking ass, taking names, throwing punches, maybe firing a gun or two.  Yeah, man, that's the Rock!!

What you don't want to see, and what Snitch gives you, is the Rock, his muscles a-rippling, get beat to a pulp by unimportant street punks that are each half his size. You don't want to see him cower and wince in fear, or soak in his own helplessness. You don't want him to take a backseat while most of the few action scenes instead feature the supporting characters, while he's off somewhere hiding or trying to figure a way out of his mess. Snitch features all of this, and with another actor in the role, it would be effective drama. Here, it's only "sort of effective" drama. It works, but not quite enough, because you're constantly reminding yourself, "yeah, but it's the Rock! When's he gonna start beatin' up the bad guys like they deserve?"

Now, you might think that despite all of this, casting the Rock against type still might somehow work in the movie's favor. After all, doesn't that cognitive contrast of an action hero in a passive role add a layer of suspense and tension? The answer is yes -- but not in a good way, because it's not the "what's going to happen to the characters" kind of suspense, it's more of an impatient "when's the Rock gonna start throwing punches" kind of suspense. After all, the movie was advertised as an action flick, and that's not what I'm getting! If you think I'm just coming across as a bloodthirsty maniac of a movie-goer, than imagine going to see Colin Firth and Emma Thompson in a Merchant-Ivory costume romance, only for Firth and Thompson to pick up machine guns and start blowing away all the nobles and duchesses who come to visit them. You'd be just as ticked. It's a bait-and-switch, plain and simple.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I know all of this sounds closed-minded, especially in light of the fact that I've even admitted that the fault isn't in Johnson's performance. I've even admitted it's a good movie, and yet here my review is, filled with nothing but repetitions of the same complaint over and over again. But if you think about it for a moment, I suspect you'll know what I mean -- and maybe even agree with it.