Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, François Damiens. Written by Frédéric Bénudis, Christophe Turpin, Mabrouk El Mechri. Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri. (14A) 96 min. Opens Nov 14.
What with the recent triumphs of such unlikely comeback kids as JCVD’s Jean-Claude Van Damme and The Wrestler’s Mickey Rourke, you have to wonder who’ll be the next weathered, hard-luck he-man star to crawl out of history’s dustbin. (Me, I’m still pulling for Jan-Michael Vincent.)
In any case, this particular moment belongs to the mighty Van Damme, who gives a brave, honest and touchingly vulnerable performance in JCVD, which returns to local screens after a rapturous reception at TIFF. He plays himself — or rather, an all-too-plausible version of himself — as a washed-up action star who spends his life wheezing his way through fight scenes and suffering through a custody battle for his daughter. While back in his Belgian hometown, he becomes tangled up in the nefarious schemes of three incompetent criminals and gets the wrong kind of attention once again.
Though the looping narrative structure proves to be a mite too meta for the movie’s own good, director Mabrouk El Mechri’s second feature is still remarkably astute as a deconstruction of action-flick tropes, a satire of modern celebrity and a long-overdue showcase for Van Damme. Devotees of the Muscles from Brussels know that he can rise to the occasion when presented with half-decent material (see Hard Target, Nowhere to Run and Maximum Risk for proof) but JCVD elicits something raw, true and extraordinary from the actor. It’s something you could even call heroic.