Beckett

“Beckett” wants to be one of those paranoid thrillers from the 1970s, where the hero finds himself in an untenable situation surrounded by those he cannot trust. Films like “The Parallax View” and “Three Days of the Condor” immediately spring to mind as examples. If you value your time, you’ll go for one of those instead of this uninvolving hash made with international politics, corrupt government officials, kidnapping, and incredulous last-reel heroics. Because it’s on Netflix, you may be more forgiving than if you paid 20 bucks to see this in a theater. However, you’ll eventually be tempted to see what else is available besides director Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s English-language debut. 

John David Washington plays Beckett, an American traveling the backroads of Greece with his girlfriend, April (Alicia Vikander). These two have absolutely no chemistry onscreen, despite “Beckett” opening with them in bed together. Their idea of fun is looking at strangers and creating backstories for them. “Your stories always turn sleazy,” Beckett tells her. It’s the only thing we learn about April. The duo is touring the more remote, rocky parts of Greece after being warned that a protest would be occurring outside their Athens hotel. April scolds Beckett for being irresponsible for not calling the bed and breakfast where they’ll be staying in the boondocks. This is all we’ll learn about him.

If you didn’t know “Beckett” was a thriller, you’d think it was about two mismatched people with dry interests, mundane conversations, and zero attraction. The thriller elements kick in when Beckett falls asleep at the wheel and runs off the road, killing April and injuring himself in the process. The car flies through an abandoned house as well before stopping. As he’s trying to escape his vehicle, Beckett thinks he sees a woman and a red-headed preteen. When he speaks to them, begging for help, they suddenly disappear. Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom shoots this as if it may be a trauma-related hallucination, so we’re not sure if our eyes are to be trusted. When cops start posing questions about the accident, the situation gets serious. Danger and violence become imminent; Filomarino keeps the pacing uneven and his protagonist uninteresting.

Writer Kevin A. Rice plays up the language barrier issues nicely—they’re the only suspenseful moments because the Greek remain untranslated. We’re as helpless as Beckett, who probably should have learned some basic Greek before embarking on this journey. Whenever someone who can speak English reverts to their native tongue, the film bristles with a sinister paranoia. Far more sinister are the two people, a bearded male cop and a blonde woman, who inexplicably start shooting at Beckett when they find he has returned to the scene of his accident. In the melee, he’s shot. This will not be the last bullet to pierce through our protagonist while he’s on the run.