Mid-grade Push

Push hasn’t been pushed—if you’ll pardon the pun—very extensively by its distributor Summit Entertainment, which means they had no money or didn’t believe in the film. Actually, it’s probably both. But being that we’re now in the thick of the traditional dumping ground dead zone for movies—that interminable period from post-Xmas to spring where studios scrape out the bottom of their barrels and expect audiences to eat it up—I’ve had worse times at the movies. Push is written by David Bourla (who I’m not familiar with) and directed by Paul McGuigan, who directed the stylish (and kind of fun despite the presence of Josh Hartnett) Lucky Number Slevin. The film is about a group of young American rebel guys with clairvoyant and telekinetic skills fighting an evil government entity.

It’s something we’ve all seen before, but Push does have a fun energy to it. In the Push universe, these very few special characters have genetically inherited their skills, and they are classified in myriad ways, as Pushers, Shifters, Stitches, Wipers, Movers, Watchers, Bleeders, and something else I’m sure I’m forgetting. Their origin story is that they’re a later generation of a Nazi experiment gone awry. Nazis continue to make appealing bad guy fodder.

The U.S. Army wants to capture them and turn them into super-soldiers. There’s also a nefarious group called The Division, and they’re after a serum that can kill the paranormals. I couldn’t quite figure if The Division was part of the Army or against it. The serum Macguffin is far more convoluted than it needed to be, and if the whole setup sounds vaguely like X-Men that’s because it is.

The main character is Nick, played by Chris Evans, a guy whose appeal as an actor continues to escape me. He’s of the telekinetic variety, and is hiding out in Hong Kong. He’s found there by Cassie, who, as played by Dakota Fanning, is the best thing in the movie. Cassie is a Pusher—she can “push” into other people’s minds. She shares this ability with Division agent/chief baddie Henry, played to menacing effect by Blood Diamond’s Djimon Hounsou. There’s a lot of exposition, a lot of moving around, a lot of everyone talking at each other and detailing their plans instead of just fighting.

In spite of all that, the film is compulsively watchable. The cinematography is rather lively, and Fanning has a lot of fun with her character. We’re told she’s older than twelve and that her mother was killed, but she still has the wherewithal to get drunk and dye her hair with purple streaks. You do get a solid sense of who these characters are, the paranormal special effects are well-executed, and even though the plot meanders and there never is a strong linear progression in the narrative, there’s a scrappiness to the proceedings that is entertaining to watch.

I wouldn’t recommend Push under normal circumstances, but since we have limited options in the weeks to come, Push works as adequate escapism.

Check out Inisia’s review here!