''Beckett'' is a 2021
action thriller film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed by
Ferdinando Cito Filomarino
Ferdinando Cito Filomarino (born 27 November 1986) is an Italian film director and screenwriter.
Career
In 2010, Cito Filomarino wrote and directed ''Diarchy'', a short film starring Louis Garrel, Riccardo Scamarcio, and Alba Rohrwacher. It scr ...
and produced by
Luca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino (; born 10 August 1971) is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their emotional complexities, sensuality and sumptuous visuals. He is also known for his frequent collaboration ...
. The film stars
John David Washington
John David Washington (born July 28, 1984) is an American actor and former professional football player. He played college football at Morehouse College and signed with the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Professionally, Washi ...
as an American tourist vacationing in Greece who becomes the target of a manhunt after an accident, and must reach
the embassy to clear his name;
Boyd Holbrook
Robert Boyd Holbrook (born September 1, 1981) is an American actor. He has starred in the Netflix series ''Narcos'' (2015-2017) as DEA agent Steve Murphy and '' The Sandman'' (2022-) as the Corinthian, as well as in the History miniseries '' Ha ...
,
Vicky Krieps
Vicky Krieps (born 4 October 1983) is a Luxembourgish-German actress. She has appeared in a number of American, Luxembourgish, French and German productions. Krieps' breakthrough role was in Paul Thomas Anderson's Academy Award-winning film ''Pha ...
, and
Alicia Vikander
Alicia Amanda Vikander (, ; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, as well as receiving nominations for ...
also star.
''Beckett'' had its world premiere at the
74th Locarno Film Festival
The 74th annual Locarno Festival was held from 4 August to 14 August 2021 in Locarno, Switzerland. The opening film of the festival was '' Beckett'' by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, which had its world premiere on 4 August. The 74th edition of Loc ...
on August 4, 2021, and was digitally released on August 13, by
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Beckett, an American tourist, leaves
Athens, Greece
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
with his girlfriend April to escape political unrest there. While driving to their hotel, at a mountain village in the region of Epirus, Beckett falls asleep at the wheel and crashes their car into a nearby house. April is killed in the accident, but while trapped in the wreck Beckett sees a boy being hurried out of the house by a blonde woman.
The next day Xenakis, a local police officer, interviews Beckett and tells him that he was lucky that the house he crashed into was abandoned; however, Beckett tells Xenakis about seeing the boy and the woman. After leaving the police station, Beckett goes back to the house with the intention of killing himself, but before he can do so the blonde woman returns and shoots at him. Xenakis arrives soon after and tells him it is safe to come out of hiding, but after he reveals himself Beckett is wounded in the arm as both the woman and Xenakis shoot at him and give chase. Beckett jumps off a cliff and escapes.
After spending the night in an abandoned truck, Beckett is found by a group of hunters who lead Beckett back to town, with one taking Beckett to his house to see to his injuries. Xenakis and the woman soon arrive, and Beckett jumps out of a window to escape again. He happens upon two beekeepers who lend him a phone. He calls the U.S. embassy in Athens, but unable to wait for their help, Beckett tells them he will make his own way to the embassy. He boards a train to go back to Athens, but Xenakis finds him and attempts to detain him. Beckett pulls the train’s emergency brake; in the ensuing struggle, Xenakis ends up getting shot in the foot and Beckett once again escapes.
Beckett sees posters of the boy being put up by two activists, Lena and Eleni. They tell him that the boy is Dimos Karras, the kidnapped son of a liberal politician who has been allegedly taken by a far-right organization. They drive Beckett to Athens, but he is forced to part ways with them to avoid a police roadblock. Beckett takes the subway to the U.S. embassy, but on the way he is attacked by a knife-wielding man. Managing to reach the embassy, Beckett is taken in by embassy staffer Tynan, who informs him that April's body had been sent to the embassy, and Beckett is taken to the morgue to view her body.
Beckett tells Tynan about Dimos' kidnappers and the activists, and Tynan offers to take him to an honest cop to sort things out. However, after leaving the embassy, Tynan tries to incapacitate Beckett with a
taser
A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...
but he is able to escape. Beckett meets up with Lena and Eleni to warn them about Tynan, but Tynan soon arrives with the police and chases Beckett to a political rally. Shots are fired at the rally and amongst the chaos Beckett takes refuge in a basement where he is cornered by Tynan, who tells him Dimos Karras' father has just been assassinated at the rally. Tynan reveals that Karras had secretly owed money to an organized crime syndicate, who then kidnapped his son in retaliation but deflected the blame onto his political enemies, also implying that the U.S. had a role to play in the deception. Fearing that Beckett had uncovered the truth behind Dimos' kidnapping, the syndicate went after him. Although Tynan assures Beckett that with Karras dead he is now free to go, Beckett knocks him out.
Beckett returns to the site of the rally to reunite with Lena and Eleni but sees the blonde woman who had kidnapped Dimos. He follows her to a parking garage, where she meets up with Xenakis, who has Dimos locked in the trunk of his car. Before they can escape, Beckett shoots Xenakis in the hand and struggles with the blonde woman. Beckett is shot but manages to knock her out, then runs after Xenakis as he tries to drive away. Beckett manages to jump onto the car from the top of the parking garage and knocks out Xenakis, finally rescuing Dimos. In the final scene, Beckett looks down at his palm and notices a heart April had drawn on his hand before the crash, reflecting on how he should have died.
Cast
*
John David Washington
John David Washington (born July 28, 1984) is an American actor and former professional football player. He played college football at Morehouse College and signed with the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Professionally, Washi ...
as Beckett, an American tourist and April’s boyfriend.
*
Boyd Holbrook
Robert Boyd Holbrook (born September 1, 1981) is an American actor. He has starred in the Netflix series ''Narcos'' (2015-2017) as DEA agent Steve Murphy and '' The Sandman'' (2022-) as the Corinthian, as well as in the History miniseries '' Ha ...
as Stephen Tynan, an employee of the U.S. embassy in Athens.
*
Vicky Krieps
Vicky Krieps (born 4 October 1983) is a Luxembourgish-German actress. She has appeared in a number of American, Luxembourgish, French and German productions. Krieps' breakthrough role was in Paul Thomas Anderson's Academy Award-winning film ''Pha ...
as Lena, a German political activist in Greece.
*
Alicia Vikander
Alicia Amanda Vikander (, ; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, as well as receiving nominations for ...
as April Hanson, Beckett's girlfriend.
*
Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael Stewart Stuhlbarg ( ; born July 5, 1968) is an American actor. He is known as a character actor having portrayed a variety of roles in film, television and theatre. He has received several awards including two Screen Actors Guild Awards wi ...
as April's father
* Maria Votti as Eleni, a political activist and Lena's colleague.
* Panos Koronis as Officer Xenakis, a corrupt Greek police officer.
* Lena Kitsopoulou as a woman who works with Xenakis to hunt down Beckett.
Production
It was announced in April 2019 that
John David Washington
John David Washington (born July 28, 1984) is an American actor and former professional football player. He played college football at Morehouse College and signed with the St. Louis Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2006. Professionally, Washi ...
,
Alicia Vikander
Alicia Amanda Vikander (, ; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, as well as receiving nominations for ...
,
Boyd Holbrook
Robert Boyd Holbrook (born September 1, 1981) is an American actor. He has starred in the Netflix series ''Narcos'' (2015-2017) as DEA agent Steve Murphy and '' The Sandman'' (2022-) as the Corinthian, as well as in the History miniseries '' Ha ...
and
Vicky Krieps
Vicky Krieps (born 4 October 1983) is a Luxembourgish-German actress. She has appeared in a number of American, Luxembourgish, French and German productions. Krieps' breakthrough role was in Paul Thomas Anderson's Academy Award-winning film ''Pha ...
had been cast in the film, then titled ''Born to Be Murdered'', which would be produced by
Luca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino (; born 10 August 1971) is an Italian film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their emotional complexities, sensuality and sumptuous visuals. He is also known for his frequent collaboration ...
. Filming had gotten underway in
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
that same month.
Release
In October 2020,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a 2021 release. In January 2021, it was announced that the film had been retitled to ''Beckett''. It had its world premiere at the
74th Locarno Film Festival
The 74th annual Locarno Festival was held from 4 August to 14 August 2021 in Locarno, Switzerland. The opening film of the festival was '' Beckett'' by Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, which had its world premiere on 4 August. The 74th edition of Loc ...
on August 4, 2021. The film was released on August 13, 2021.
Reception
On the
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, 47% of 75 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "''Beckett'' brings a propulsive energy to its man-on-the-run story, but this rather thinly written thriller fails to consistently engage." According to
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigned a weighted average of 52 out of 100 based on 24 critics, the film received "mixed or average reviews".
References
External links
*
* {{Netflix title
2021 films
2021 action thriller films
2020s chase films
2020s English-language films
Brazilian action thriller films
English-language Brazilian films
English-language Greek films
English-language Italian films
English-language Netflix original films
Films about child abduction
Films about road accidents and incidents
Films set in Athens
Films shot in Athens
Films shot in Epirus
Films scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Greek thriller films
Italian action thriller films
Rai Cinema films
English-language action thriller films