As the film Repo Men coasts along on a tide of arterial spray and urban blight, one might initially mistake it for a tale of redemption. This is not the case. The film is, in fact, a bleak reminder that everyone pays in the end, whether by cash or through graphic–and frequently fatal–repossession. Since half the audience of any American screening will consist of people up to their collective necks in credit card debt, Repo Men is a cautionary tale worth heeding. It’s also an enjoyable bit of filmmaking, bolstered by likable leads, a spot-on soundtrack, and enough of the ol’ ultra-violence to engage those not interested in dark social critiques.
Remy (Jude Law) is the best repo man in the business. Along with his partner and best friend, Jake (Forest Whitaker), they roam a futuristic megalopolis tracking down those long overdue on payments to The Union. This corporation provides state-of-the-art artificial organs, but the small print in the contract enables men such as Remy and Jake to repossess them with extreme prejudice. And by that, I mean they stun the victims with a futuristic taser and perform impromptu surgery with little regard for the survival rate. Afterwards, all that’s left to do is take the organ(s) back to headquarters and drop it off with their slimy boss, Frank (Liev Schrieber). Hey, it’s a living. After all, Remy has a wife (Carice van Houten) and child to support. And Jake…well, Jake has a really swank apartment.
But things get complicated when Remy suffers an on-the-job injury and finds himself in need of the same kind of artificial heart he’s used to carving out. The cost is astronomical, but his skill as an unwanted organ harvester should take care of the problem. Much to his surprise, however, the post-accident Remy no longer has the stomach for slicing open the sobbing or unconscious clients of The Union. As a result, he falls behind on his payments and invokes the small print suffered by so many before him. Guess who they send to collect? But Remy isn’t alone in his flight from debt. He’s joined by Beth (Alice Braga), a junkie lounge singer chock-full of artificial upgrades. This character not only provides our protagonist with a path towards redemption, but some of those implants make for handy plot devices.
While the automatic shotgun wielded by Forest Whitaker on the movie poster may portend plenty of gaping chest wounds, the bulk of the shootouts are done with taser-like weapons. It makes sense, though, as it’s hard to collect your finder’s fee if the artificial organ has a hole blown through it. But that doesn’t stop the red stuff from flowing in large quantities, as Repo Men presents a stream of field surgeries, knife fights, and blows to the cranium. There’s even a climatic scene that mimics the hotel corridor showdown in Olboy, except far bloodier. This is followed by one of the more erotic presentations of self-mutilation in cinematic history, which should tell you that first-time director Miguel Sapochnik is trying to accomplish something different. He only partially succeeds.
Darkly humorous flashbacks add depth to the lead characters, and a scene of a knife-wielding Jake performing a quick repo job at a barbeque juxtaposes the reality of the trade with life in suburbia, but the script by Eric Garcia and Garrett Lerner is too derivative to allow for a fiercely original work. Based on Garcia’s own novel, The Repossession Mambo, the screenplay borrows generously from works such as Repo! The Genetic Opera (originally a stage play before it was a movie) and Brazil, although the inclusion of the “Live Organ Transplants” segment of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life was a welcome addition.
It also commits a major cop-out with the character of Jake. He and Remy have been partners for years, friends since childhood, and they even served together during an unnamed war. After his pal falls behind on payments, Jake does everything he can to help his buddy out of the financial bind (short of floating him a loan). He only takes the assignment to track down Jake after being left with no choice, and the idea of hesitant predator and dangerous prey is a compelling one. But then the script introduces an awkward bit of information meant to draw boos from the gallery. It’s crammed into the narrative with little subtlety, and those who respond to it will only be further incensed when Repo Men springs its twist during the final minutes of the film. Forest Whitaker deserves better material.
The film’s soundtrack is a high point, with compositions ranging from Nina Simone to Toots and the Maytals. While most songs float in the background of a motion picture, these become as much a part of the action as Law or Whitaker. Director Sapochnik’s experience with music videos shines through in the best way possible.
One final quibble involves the world in which Repo Men is set. It’s supposed to be a chaotic mess, with even the federal government forced to declare bankruptcy. But it seems far too orderly for that, and the only real signs of economic distress are the people who can’t scrounge together $600,000 for an artificial liver (who could?) and the dense stretches of abandoned buildings on the outskirts of the city. While these areas should be filled with all manner of danger and desperation, the film reduces them to the kind of place where young girls safely jump rope without supervision and all sorts of useful items can be found lying around. When the homeless people don’t seem crazy, you know there’s something seriously wrong.
Repo Men has the underpinnings of a sci-fi genre classic, especially with its social commentary and impressive lead actors, but the weak source material keeps it grounded in the realm of the slightly-above-average. The ending will confuse some and irritate others (although I found it strangely fitting), and Remy’s wife, Carol, provides one of the most unlikable movie wives to come down the pipe in the while. But despite its flaws, I never once felt the urge to bust into the box office, produce a scalpel, and carve my ticket money from the register.
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