Organ-ized crime: 'Repo Men' a gory sci-fi thriller
"Repo Men" is a horrifically violent and gory science-fiction action thriller surfing on an allegorical wave of American political Zeitgeist.
It wants to grab us by our collective lapels as if to shout, "Please! Pass health care reform! Regulate insurance and medical companies before America turns to this!"
"This" would be a world in the not-too-distant future when big corporations sell artificial body parts for a kazillion dollars, then charge 19.6 percent interest on loans to purchase them so patients can stay alive.
But not too long.
The moment that patients default on their exorbitant payments, the corporation - given the working-class collective name "The Union" - dispatches repo men to stun delinquent clients and remove whatever body parts possess outstanding balances.
Heart. Lungs. Liver. Kidneys. Eyes. Whatever.
The repo men surgically repossess them on the spot. They give new meaning to the term "deadbeat."
The cops and courts apparently have no problem with this form of contract enforcement. Worse, the Union doesn't want its organ recipients to pay on time.
"We can't make money if everyone pays off their loans," says Frank (Liev Schreiber), the chilly corporate honcho whose snakelike charm convinces gullible clients to sign their own death warrants.
Frank's best repo men are Jake (Forest Whitaker) and Remy (Jude Law), pals since fourth grade. They are the elite of their profession, capable of locating and subduing targets, then removing artificial body parts with a surgeon's skill.
Remy loves the thrill of the chase so much, he disregards the entreaties of his moral-minded wife (Carice van Houten) to resign. She boots him out of the house.
Then, in a cruel twist of fate perhaps, an accident causes Remy's heart to fail, and he wakes up from a coma with - you guessed it - an artificial heart in place of the one he never had anyway.
Sorry, no discounts for Union employees.
"Repo Men" follows Remy's other change of heart, the one where he develops a conscience and sets out to redeem himself in a corporate world resembling a slightly cleaner version of the cityscapes in "Blade Runner."
Remy and Jake slowly become enemies, as you would expect. Remy, now in payment default, hides in a slum with a drugged-out torch singer, Beth (the appealing Alice Braga, niece of Brazilian bombshell Sonia Braga).
Beth has had more body parts replaced than the T-800 Terminator. And she's got a really bad credit score.
"Repo Men" has been directed with purpose and zeal by a filmmaker named Miguel Sapochnik. He presents brutal, powerful action sequences along with visceral scenes of surgical yuckiness. (Dinner dates after the film not recommended.)
The violence and dialogue become increasingly daffy, even comically overstated with each passing scene. But stay with it. There's a madness to its method.
Even though all the main characters have been impeccably cast, Schreiber is the stand out as the Union's dehumanized mouthpiece.
"You're not taking a life," he tells new repo recruits. "You're helping the Union stay solvent so we can help many others!"
Sometimes, "Repo Men" is almost as funny as the similarly plotted 2008 musical comedy "Repo: The Genetic Opera" starring Barrington native Bill Moseley.
<p class="factboxheadblack">"Repo Men"</p>
<p class="News">★★★</p>
<p class="News"><b>Starring:</b> Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Alice Braga, Liev Schreiber</p>
<p class="News"><b>Directed by:</b> Miguel Sapochnik</p>
<p class="News"><b>Other:</b> A Universal Pictures release. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations, graphic violence. 111 minutes</p>
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