During a gala to celebrate a company’s contributions to conservation, a high rise building is taken over by a band of armed activists. While the takeover is happening, former soldier Joey Locke (played by Daisy Ridley) is on the side of the building cleaning windows. When her requests to be brought back up to the roof go unanswered, she starts to realize something’s wrong. She begins to witness gassings and killings from her perch outside. After finding a way to alert the authorities, she becomes a secondary target for the bad guys and has to fight to stay alive while helping to save all the hostages.
If CLEANER sounds similar to DIE HARD, that’s because it is. A skyscraper, a takeover, hostages, an unexpected hero, a bad ass villain and clueless authority figures are all ingredients in this formulaic action movie.
Just as she was in another under-appreciated film, THE MARSH KING’S DAUGHTER, Ridley is excellent and believable. She commands the screen whenever she’s on it and, despite being the lead, she leaves the audience wanting more.
In addition, Taz Skyler is outstanding as the antagonist, Noah. His acting range is on full display here, mastering subtleties that only enhance his character’s artificialness, commitment to the cause and unstable nature.
Rounding out the rest of the main cast: Matthew Tuck (in his theatrical debut) is mostly forgettable as Joey’s autistic brother, Clive Owen as Marcus has an interesting arc that creates a sense of surprise and Ruth Gemmell was solid as Director Claire Hume.
Martin Campbell — friend of the pod, by the way — has done a good job directing here. Yes, it’s a DIE HARD cookie-cutter story but he takes that story and makes it more compelling than it would be otherwise. The opening scene is masterfully done, for example, as he shows the environment Joey and Michael grew up in which, in turn, helps explain the bond between the two later in life. A lesser director would’ve went with a more “shock value” approach in order to grab the audience’s attention early on. Campbell knew another way and pulled it off effectively and efficiently without it being too tough to watch.
CLEANER is not without its problems, however. There are multiple occasions when terrorists have an altercation right next to the window and we’re expected to believe they wouldn’t notice a human face staring back at them from the outside? Another example is how Marcus puts a more loose-cannon Noah in his place but then, maybe 12 seconds later, entrusts him to safely bring back the company executive who he just took issue with. And finally, when Director Hume gets involved, all of a sudden there’s a lot of exposition on different guys’ backstories and why they might be there and what the different possible outcomes are, etc. All of these things take the audience out of the movie long enough to question what they’re seeing, second-guess the writing or even check their watch.
At the end of the day, CLEANER is enjoyable. Ridley continues to impress, Skyler makes a great villain, there’s a power struggle you don’t see coming and the director takes a formulaic story and makes it better. Is it DIE HARD for a new generation? No, but I’m sure that was the idea when it was written.
JKG SCORE: 6.0
Untitled Film Project 