'The Outsider' Is Yet Another Forgettable Netflix Original Movie [Review]

You’d be forgiven for not realizing that, while you were sleeping, Netflix went ahead and released another mediocre film; it’s honestly becoming commonplace at this point. Their newest hail-mary, “The Outsider,” stars Jared Leto as an American POW who becomes part of the Yakuza. Sound culturally and racially problematic? Well, it kind of is but really the film is way too bland to be horribly offensive. Leto, with his whispery dialogue and complete lack of emotional range, fails to register on any level. While the film itself feels straight out of a Robert McKee seminar, as each twist and turn is telegraphed so blatantly, that it’s hard to see what Leto, who can be a good actor when he’s not too busy going all “method,” saw in it.

The film follows Nick (Leto) who, for unexplained reasons, finds himself in a Japanese jail in post-WWII. After helping his cellmate Kiyoshi (Tadanobu Asano of “Thor” fame) escape through a purposely botched Seppuku, Nick is welcomed into the Shiromatsu crime family. He quickly becomes the silent muscle while also, and I bet you didn’t see this coming, falling for Kiyoshi’s sister Miyu (Shioli Kutsuna, whose talent is utterly wasted in the film) who is forbidden from him. A few graphic kills and a couple of missing fingers later, Nick becomes a full fledged member of the family. Of course, double crosses ensue, as the Shiromatsu and rival Seizo family’s fight for superiority, with Nick trapped between the loyalty to his newly adopted family and the love of Miyu. Oh, and just because, Emile Hirsch shows up for maybe three minutes as a forgotten acquaintance of Nick’s to hint at a deeper backstory that never gets explained.

Emile Hirsch’s cameo, in fact, is emblematic of many of the problems in “The Outsider.” Lack of clarity and thrown in asides do not equal depth or even backstory. We find nothing out about Nick’s life and Leto plays him as such a blank slate that the movie wouldn’t be that different if Leto weren’t even in it at all. On the spectrum of Leto “Suicide Squad”-level craziness and bland “Mr. Nobody” monotony, this performance much more the latter, to the detriment of the film.

Asano’s Kiyoshi is a much more interesting character, but even with him as protagonist “The Outsider” would still be a miscalculation as another bland Yakuza film. Written by “The Take” scribe Andrew Baldwin and directed by “Land of Mine” director Martin Zandvliet, “The Outsider” hits story beats as if working off a manual. White protagonist that the audience can “identify” with? Got that. Illicit family affair? Yep. Jealous family member that doesn’t believe the white protagonist belongs? You betcha. Final showdown using, of course, a samurai sword? Obviously, how else do you end a film set in Japan?

All signs point to Zandvliet being a good director, with his previous film “Land of Mine” getting quite good reviews, but he seems out of his element. The one highlight of the film being Camilla Hjlelm’s cinematography. She paints post-war Japan in a neutral palette, only exploding neon colors intermittently to highlight the draw of the cityscape for Nick.

Before Zandvliet and Leto took over, the film was originally going to be directed by Takashi Miike and star Tom Hardy. Who knows how that iteration would’ve turned out, but we can all assume it would’ve had more life in it then this version. It’s hard to fault “The Outsider” too much though, as it will predictably fall into the black hole that is Netflix original movies, so here’s hoping that Zandvliet, Leto, and especially Hjelm move on to better things in the near future. [D]