Let it be said: give Russell Crowe an accent, any accent, and the man who once played Maximus will consistently, fearlessly deliver. It may be exaggerated, even toe the line of outright silliness, but rest assured, an accent will nevertheless escape his mouth without fail, presumably doing some portion of the heavy lifting for the film in which it resides. It’s a strange phenomenon, hardly unique to Crowe specifically, but heard time and again throughout the likes of “The Pope’s Exorcist,” “Thor: Love and Thunder,” and “Kraven the Hunter.” Now, with his latest, “The Get Out,” Crowe opens his metaphorical toolbox for yet another vocal affectation, one that somehow finds a way to slide into the DMs of a rather straightforward crime narrative without overshadowing the story, the characters, or his own beard.
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Here, Crowe stars as Manco Kapac, an Albanian transplant who has spent years running a nightclub in Los Angeles. Despite apparent success in both business and his personal life, thanks to his girlfriend Sunny (Teresa Palmer), the club is also a front for a money-laundering scheme with ties to a Mexican cartel. The stress of that operation, plus his after-hours activities with Sunny, triggers a cardiac event, and his doctor urges Kapac to scale back in every facet of his life lest he face another episode.
His plan to sell the club and retire to a more tropical locale soon hits a roadblock when what should have been a routine money drop for his cartel contact Rodriguez (Danny Zovatto) ends with Kapac robbed at gunpoint by a masked individual. That thief is later revealed to be Jeff (Aaron Paul), a local college professor who writes counterfeit college-admission essays as a side hustle. When his latest efforts fail to secure a scholarship all but promised to the son of Detective Slosser (Josh McConville), Jeff suddenly faces a hefty bill from blackmail, leading him to turn to decidedly more serious criminal acts. Unfortunately, his attempt to deposit the stolen money tips off bank teller Carrie (Nina Dobrev), a rabid “Point Break” fan who wants in on Jeff’s operation as a means of satisfying the adrenaline rush she craves. Oh, and there’s Joe (Luke Evans), the intended buyer of Kapac’s nightclub, armed with plenty of half-buttoned shirts and a baffling personality befitting such an overstuffed plot, and got all that?
In better films, most notably “Jackie Brown,” a seemingly random chain of events that inevitably comes together can very well work, but in “The Get Out,” patience wears thin as the minutes tick by while waiting for that moment to finally arrive. There’s not enough Crowe to help. He’s second or third fiddle in his own film, and his reaction to Jeff’s actions is one of near-bemusement, with the movie never fully leaning into the possibility of going over the top, something that might genuinely feel welcome. As it stands, he’s simply slogging through the motions, despite his chemistry with Palmer and comedy that works until it doesn’t.
A third-act burst of violence feels too little too late, the comedy lands more scattershot than expected, and even though Paul somehow works as Jeff, those moments when he can’t seem to decide what to do with the character are unfortunately just as apparent. There’s a perpetual frustration he carries, with his various dilemmas visibly sitting atop his shoulders. At the same time, his palpable annoyance with unwelcome sidekick Carrie and her forehead-rubbing turn into a hyperactive thrill-seeker doesn’t help matters, for him or for the audience. Meanwhile, Evans is doing something with his character, if only appearing from time to time as if to remind viewers he’s here.
Director Derrick Borte, who last worked with Crowe on 2020’s “Unhinged,” does what he can to balance the various threads as he attempts to funnel each toward a fitting conclusion. And though one is present, it feels less earned than a sense of relief that the credits have arrived. It’s a film of a different era, but what era that may be is anyone’s guess. [C-]
