In one of 2008’s most original visions, JCVD is the story of movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme returning to his home in Brussels and getting stuck in the middle of a bank robbery.Writer Frederic Benudis and co-writer/director Mabrouk El Mechri create a truly unique and ambitious film working as part docudrama, part crime caper. The storytelling is crafted so that the film operates on multiple levels, making it something unlike what we have seen before.
Pierre-Yves Bastard beautifully photographs the film using a monochromatic template. He makes great use of long take tracking shots, especially in the opening sequence as JCVD hits too many action beats to count, knocking bad guys unconscious or blowing them away until someone messes up the take. I knew I was going to like this film from that very first scene.
Not to discredit the huge niche he carved out for himself in the action genre, but, quite frankly, I was blindsided by Van Damme’s performance. He shows naturalism in JCVD that I had never seen before in his work. He plays a version of his real self, an over-the-hill-international-action hero with an addictive past and problems with his ex-wives, which in itself is an interesting approach to a character. But to then take that version of himself and crash it headlong into a Dog Day Afternoon situation is such an original idea, it provides him with an opportunity to turn his public image on its head.
There are some who would say that Bloodsport was the film Ingmar Bergman intended to make when he directed Wild Strawberries. And to be perfectly serious Bloodsport is the better film.
