John Frankenheimer
Ronin

An extraordinary actor like De Niro, a great director, a mediocre film.

Ronin is released in 1998, yet another directorial work by John Frankenheimer. A film with no pretensions focused entirely on action and with a not very convincing plot. The whole story takes place in France, where some men are hired to retrieve a briefcase whose contents are never revealed to us. At the head of this group is a woman named Deirdre, played by Natascha McElhone, not quite comfortable in this role. After various shootouts, including one under a bridge on the Seine, a phase full of chases begins. From Nice to Arles, passing through Paris, we witness an impressive series of reckless pursuits. Beautiful, impeccable, all shot live and with great use of stuntmen, but too intrusive. A film of almost two hours cannot have forty minutes of just car chases. There is certainly no lack of suspense, and we also have the masterful performance of the two "ronin." The two "ronin" answer to the names of Robert De Niro and Jean Reno. Their performances are substantial, profound. I must say that without their participation, this film would have been insignificant.

Frankenheimer bases his film on virtuosity, dynamics, the ballistics of the clashes and the various pursuits. The psychological aspect of the characters is not explored, too many scenes seem fake, and some even predictable. A mass of things already seen is created. The whole thing picks up in the middle part where you catch your breath for a few minutes and where more space is given to the acting of the two main protagonists. De Niro and Reno are masterful even if too left to themselves, estranged in a film where action is the main protagonist.

There is nothing original in Ronin. Frankenheimer is an old-school director, one who loves raw and no-frills cinema. The plot suffers, a good part of the script and even the acting. The actors are left to fend for themselves, just as the title suggests: the "ronin" were samurai who were left without a master, often becoming mercenaries. And this is what happens in the film, where every character hired to retrieve that elusive briefcase is specialized in their field: some in weapons, some in technology, some in cars. They will be hired by the Irish mafia and paid as real mercenaries to do the "dirty work."

The film will end in the last minutes in an endless sequence of the search for the briefcase: from shootouts in an ice rink to disjointed scenes among the crowd. All this to arrive at a more predictable ending than one could imagine.

Ultimately, an action film where a worthy plot is missing, with some good sequences alternated, however, by too many directorial gaps filled with endless chases. A film with no pretensions, with no moral message. In short, if De Niro and Reno had not delivered such a great performance, this would have been an embarrassing film...