Released August 27, 2009
While holding the occupants of an underground train hostage seems to contain inherent logistical impracticalities and does not exactly provide the perpetrators with an easy exit route, my first question when I heard of this subway-train hostage film was: why hadn’t I seen this before? I would have, had I seen the excellent 1974 original starring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. This updated Pelham, re-imagined from John Godey’s novel is a slick, contemporary action thriller. It succeeds primarily because of Denzel Washington’s likable performance as Walter Garber, an everyman transit dispatcher and makeshift hostage negotiator.
Director Tony Scott however, almost ruins his film by over direction. Before John Travolta as Ryder, subway hijacker and loudmouth, even takes control of the 1:23 PM afternoon train from Pelham, New York, we’re confronted with flickering jump cuts and look-at-me editing, making it difficult to tell what is happening and negating the dramatic content.
Thankfully, it settles down as Travolta and Washington play off each other in an entertaining game of cat and mouse. He and his minions demand that the city mayor, James Gandolfini, transfer $10 million dollars (the most that can be exchanged in one transaction) within an hour before the passengers become collateral. A slimy John Tuturro arrives as a professional negotiator, but Ryder refuses to speak to him, insisting instead that Garber be his intermediary. This central dynamic is nicely drawn out by screenwriter Brian Helgeland, (Mystic River, L.A. Confidential). It becomes obvious that Garber may not quite the noble everyman he appears, and Washington is reliable as usual in bringing out the conflicted shades of his character. Travolta fares less well – his overblown shtick is entertaining but shallow and one-note.
While conventional in its plot development, some elements are awkwardly introduced and then discarded: a young teenager’s laptop’s live webcam feed into the train, a potential mine of information for the authorities, remains curiously unnoticed. The transit control centre though, is a fantastic set modeled on the real facility under Manhattan, and a wonder of busy design and functionality – the flipside of J.J. Abrams' Apple-Store Enterprise.
Denzel is however the star. But unlike Scott’s best film, Crimson Tide, Pelham 123 suffers from his seeming reluctance to allow his actors centre stage, and his tendency to one-up them with overly snappy editing and superfluous directorial flourishes.
