This biopic about the first President of the Philippines under the Commonwealth suffers greatly from its incomprehensible humorous undertone, with cheap comedic quips present during two-thirds of the film.
An old and tired Jackie Chan wanders sluggishly throughout this movie, as his age clearly shows in his few action sequences, where fast cutting and armed showdowns try to play the trick to cover the obvious lack of physicality.
It is a bad sign when, already within the first act, a film jumps randomly between genres, from action‑comedy to action‑drama to rom‑com. This reveals a glaring lack of clarity and conviction about what the filmmaker is trying to achieve and what mood the movie wants to convey to the audience.
A great film by Kelly Reichardt, in which the overall look (costumes, locations, cinematography) and its jazzy soundtrack set the perfect tone for what becomes an excellent first act, culminating in the art‑museum robbery; a strong second act, where we see the immediate consequences of the heist orchestrated by James Blaine “JB” Mooney (Josh O’Connor); and a fantastic resolution in which, as soon as the character does something morally reprehensible (beyond the robbery itself), karma strikes.
While it offers a strong portrayal of the gross hypocrisy of the (although never explicitly stated) presumably Democrat‑leaning American elite, embodied by Jessica Chastain’s character, Jennifer McCarthy, her wealthy family, and the foundation they chair, as well as the San Francisco ballet company and the colleagues encountered by immigrant Fernando Rodríguez (played by Isaac Hernández), the truth is that writer‑director Michel Franco never quite dares to fully explore the political and societal implications of his material.
