Movie 140: Cleaner

Ex cop turned crime scene cleaner Tom Cutler (Samuel L Jackson) thinks he’s just going to another homicide clean up. But it turns out that he’s unwittingly scrubbed a scene before any crime has been discovered. With the help of his old partner Eddie (Ed Harris) he tries to get to the bottom of who set him up.

Crime thrillers are ridiculously common. There’s a million shows on TV right now, and each one of them runs for years. So it takes a lot to make one stand out without the advantage of characters that you’ve gotten to know week after week.

This one isn’t exactly anything remarkable, but it does bring something new to the table.

First off there’s the fact that Sam Jackson’s character does a job we don’t normally see anywhere. After the CSI boys have done there thing someone has to get rid of the mess, and personally I wouldn’t like to do it. So we have a fleshing out of an aspect of life that no one really things about. Its not glamorous, but it’s a nice change.

The ending of the film, which I won’t spoil, is rather predictable if you pay attention but it also has a bit of a spin on things. I’m sure its been done before, but once again it’s a bit refreshing.

And finally there’s a couple of great performances by Jackson doing his thing, and Ed Harris doing his. The two of them are on form here so its good to watch.

The acting side is let down a little by Luis Guzman who has a bit of that stroke voice problem that I had with Mos Def in Be Kind Rewind. He’s just a little hard to make out sometimes, and isn’t really anything remarkable. Eva Mendes isn’t quite a let down in this, she has her moments, but I’ve yet to think she’s much more that a pouty face in anything I’ve seen her in. This does show some promise for her though.

It’s a good thriller and if you like them you’ll like this. If it was a cop show this wouldn’t quite be a sweeps episode, well it might be but that’s more due to the characters and their interaction, but it would be one of the good ones. If you see it coming up on the telly it’s a decent enough watch.

Next up: The Untouchables