Wolfs

Grade: B-

I listened to my favorite movie review podcast’s take on Wolfs before I watched it. The two hosts give away a significant plot point. Initially, I was upset, because I thought they had blown a big secret. It’s usually safe to listen to what they say before seeing the film. It’s something that we find out early on, and is not the huge spoiler I thought it was, but still, I wish I hadn’t known. I won’t tell you, but that means I can’t summarize the story too much. It ultimately doesn’t matter. Wolfs is obviously a thinly-veiled vehicle for George Clooney and Brad Pitt to get back onscreen together. It works only because of them. It would be so lame otherwise.

Wolfs opens with a woman (Amy Ryan from Beau Is Afraid, Bridge of Spies, and Birdman) screaming. She stopped at a luxury hotel bar for a drink after a work function, impulsively got a room with a young guy she just met (she’s married), and now his body is on the floor. She calls a “fixer,” and in comes Clooney. Like Harvey Keitel’s Winston Wolf in Pulp Fiction, Clooney’s character makes problems like this go away. If you find a dead body, he cleans up the situation and takes care of all loose ends – no worries, no questions asked. Matters are complicated when Pitt shows up a few minutes later. He is the same kind of cleaner, and was summoned by someone else. Now, we’re off to the races, as these men banter, bicker, repeat themselves, and talk over each other as they figure out how to temporarily work together to solve this predicament.

The rest of the film is on action buddy comedy autopilot, failing to retain the charm of the opening sequence. There’s a chase scene that covers so much ground and goes on way too long (somebody really REALLY wants to get away from someone else), but in the midst of that, an extended slow-motion segment involving an oncoming car has a funny payoff. The screenplay isn’t always the smartest in the world when it comes to the back-and-forth between the stars. Too many conversations fall back on that old reliable two-word phrase. The supporting cast (including Ryan, Austin Abrams, and voice work by Frances McDormand) is solid. I wish the scene with Richard Kind had been allowed to play out so we saw everything, instead of vaguely hearing about it afterwards.

The plot details are excessively labyrinthine. Discoveries, conspiracy theories, realizations, and explanations continue to be unpacked right up to the last scene, where the two men have breakfast in a diner, a la John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction. When I finished my viewing, I had a strong desire to look at Reddit discussions, or those “ending explained” articles – but that urge quickly faded. I don’t care that much. Wolfs is an opportunity to see two old pros, who are rarely better than when they’re together, back again for another victory lap. It comes off slightly more successfully than Ticket to Paradise, which I felt was doing the same with Clooney and Julia Roberts. Is it possible for the inclusion of two particular actors to singlehandedly save a movie that would have been pretty bad otherwise? Apparently so.

Grade: B-