When I heard about G20 (directed by Patricia Riggen), an action movie set at the titular summit in which Viola Davis plays an American president in action-hero mode, I knew I would have to watch it. I figured it would be dumb fun. And I was right, and I was wrong. It was mostly fun, but mostly not dumb.
Spoilers follow.
If you are looking for a movie where serious problems are addressed without violence, this is not that movie. But it’s not as empty of significance as action movies generally are.
The worst part is the opening, which features an unlikely McGuffin carried by a woman (Angela Sarafyan) who’s being chased by sinister agents, while elsewhere the president of the United States is aroused from well-earned slumber by an aide telling her that a code-named subject has been retrieved.
What’s wrong with that? The McGuffin is an electronic wallet for some kind of cryptocoin. I figured I was going to have to sit through a commercial for the blockchain. Blecch.
Plus: the scenes in the White House had nothing to do with the suspense plot. The code-named target was the president’s teen-aged daughter (Marsai Martin) who had evaded surveillance and snuck off to a bar. She’s mad that she was dragged back by the Secret Service and she’s mad at her mom. This is great, because surly teenage daughters are so rare on screen these days that—no, just kidding, they are apparently essential to modern storytelling.
I’m sure there are surly teenage daughters in this world, just as I am sure that most friction between teenagers and parents comes from the parents being various kinds of jerk. Don’t bother to argue with me about this. I’m old and I never change my mind about something unless I’m wrong, which I’m not in this instance. In any case, it’s an incredibly trite narrative move. Blecch again.
“Is this movie going to bore me?” I asked Dr. Reuben Sandwich, my sole companion on this adventure (since D was off rehearsing a play). He did not immediately answer.
Anyway, I figured three blecchs and they’re out: I’d turn the movie off.
But, in fact, the movie did not turn out to be some credulous puff-piece for crypto, and although the teenage daughter is introduced in the most stupidly cliche way possible, her escape from surveillance turns out to be a plot-relevant skill, and when the plot gets underway she acts in a commendably reasonable manner.
In fact, that’s true of most of the characters in the movie, and is one of the best things about it. Everyone in it acts with reasonable intelligence in pursuit of what they see as their own interests. This is not an idiot plot. That might seem like faint praise but it’s not. Useful idiots abound in storytelling (and politics, too, but let’s try to avoid thinking about that).
The suspense plot involves a group of criminals, deeply embedded into U.S. security services, taking over the G20 summit. The goal is to crash the world economy, causing cryptocoin prices to soar, enriching the criminals. They’re not exactly terrorists but their leader (capably played by Antony Starr) has a political axe to grind which sounds a lot like Brexit/MAGA gibberish. But the money is the main thing for them, like the gang in Die Hard, the illustrious ancestor of this type of movie.
When the criminals attack, the ex-military US President escapes, taking with her the doltish, yammering UK Prime Minister (Douglas Hodge), the head of the IMF (Sabrina Impacciatore) and the First Lady of Korea (MeeWha Alana Lee), all of whom are watched over by the president’s principal Secret Service guard (Ramón Rodríguez)—until he takes a disabling bullet. At that point the president herself has to take the lead, risking life and limb to save her accidental companions, her family, and indeed the world.
I won’t go into the gory details, except that it does get a little gory. No more than the average James Bond movie, but that would include a pretty high body count. If you like this kind of movie, this is the kind of movie that you’ll like.
There is a significant political message here, which probably won’t bother you if you’re not crazy. The reviewer at RogerEbert.com found some of this stuff “too on-the -nose”. Personally, as a guy watching a lot of old WWII movies because the news is so frustratingly deranged, I didn’t have a problem with the messagey parts. There is a time and place for that kind of stuff; the time is now and the place is here, until things get considerably better than they are.
The political philosophy isn’t just a candy-coating. It’s woven through the work. There is considerable personal heroism in this movie, but it’s given meaning and effectiveness by intelligent cooperation with other people. And whenever anyone in the plot gets so full of themselves that they’re not prepared to take a clue, one is forcibly delivered.
A good example is when the president and her guard are standing around arguing about how they’re going to go through a door with some armed bad guys on the other side. The head of the IMF and the UK Prime Minister are bickering about something else. Meanwhile the SK First Lady has an idea for an alternate route: down the laundry chute. No one will listen to her (because no one listens to old ladies, even when they notice they’re there) so she shrugs and dives down the laundry chute. At that point, every realizes that there is a way out that doesn’t involve getting shot at and they follow her down.
By the time we get to the scenes where the president is kicking and shooting her way through villain-rich environments like one of the badass heroes from Person of Interest, it’s almost believable, since Viola Davis (and the script) have done so much good work humanizing the character. Anyway, by that time you’re rooting for her. (When I say you I mean me, really; de gustibus, and all that.) But it’s her shrewdness and observational skills that let her figure out Who Is Really Behind It All.
Watching this movie was a painfully melancholy, almost nostalgic experience in a way almost certainly not intended by its makers. It’s set in an alternate timeline where the US has a capable leader and the nation itself is still a respected leader in world affairs. But that was long ago—five or six months, at least. It’s amazing how far and how fast a nation can fall when it falls from a height.
Anyway.
In summary: the movie might be a half hour too long, as almost every movie is these days, and some of the more obviously CGIed scenery looks a little thin. But in general this is a fast-paced, intelligent action movie with a solid soundtrack and fine performances from a diverse cast.
P.S.
Re the soundtrack: this was my favorite track, by Miriam Makeba.
