Nobody knows…the trouble he’s seen…nobody knows his sorrow.
The improbably named Hutch Mansell is played by the improbably cast Bob Odenkirk, the slight, verbose barrister of Better Call Saul and the unlikely action star here.
In Nobody, we are introduced to a suburban family and a perpetually garbage day-missing put-upon dad whose days blend into one another.
He has a dead-end punch clock managerial job which frankly, looks quite hellish.
When the fam become victims of an armed home invasion, Hutch takes a passive/pacifist approach causing a rift with his teenage son and making him the simp/wimp butt of office jokes.
Before too long, however, Hutch, like Michael McDonald, is taking it to the streets. And he’s seeking trouble where he can find it a la Charles Bronson in Death Wish and like fellow mellow family man Paul Kersey, acquitting himself unbelievably well in the process.
A kind of reverse A History of Violence, Nobody lacks the smarts and social commentary about identity, redemption and recidivism of that Cronenberg classic, and puts things squarely in high gear as a lunk-head action film. And we as viewers are the better for it.
Nobody has cornball Russian baddies, fisticuffs galore – a city bus donnybrook that is absolutely legendary – and even Christopher Lloyd and Michael Ironside (Scanners). If that isn’t enough to wet your action whistle, what is?
***3/4 (out of 5)
[Check out the Really Awful Movies podcast discussion of Nobody!]
Really Awful Movies 