Freelance (2023)

Freelance review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

The best thing I can say about Freelance is that it feels like another notch in the belt for John Cena, who is proving he can perform some comedy. I must admit that I enjoy Cena’s energy, but I am aggravated that the films he stars in can’t match his brilliance. Despite the Cena CPR, his charisma can’t even save this picture from being a slog, despite the abundance of twists thrown into the mix.

Cena plays Mason, an ex-special forces operative trying to find some solid work and maintain his suburban life with his family. He finds an opportunity opens up when his military buddy Sebastian (Christian Slater) offers him a dangerous task. The investigative journalist Claire (Alison Brie) aims to get an exclusive interview with a dictator (Juan Pablo Raba) but will need security when venturing into a dangerous country. Mason is the man for the job, and he helps the fish-out-of-water Claire live to break her big story. Of course, they happen to arrive in this country amid a military coup, and it isn’t long before Mason and Claire are trekking through the jungle (with the dictator in tow) as they aim to survive the rebels aiming guns at them.

This seems like a plot that should be beneath Cena at this point. It’s loaded with all the cliches one would expect from this type of film. Mason and Claire clash on their visions of the world, where the journalist can only see stories and the mercenary can only see the danger. There’s some okay back and forth between Cena and Slater, but the film could have used more spirited exchanges like that. There is some romantic tension between Mason and Claire, boiling up to a limp moment where the two accidentally witness each other naked among the showers. I couldn’t help but remember when Cena appeared naked to deliver the Oscar nominations for Best Costume. There was a decent gag to that nudity. Here, the PG-13 nudity is present so that the main characters can blush and the more open dictator can comment on Cena’s tattoos.

There’s a certain wish-fulfillment fantasy in how this whole film proceeds. The action is violent and bloody, yet rarely shocking all that much for a film with ambushes, explosions, and hails of gunfire. The political implications of this fictional country come off like a stock dictatorship of a South American country. When the trio of travelers venture to a small village for sanctuary, they further learn of the plight of the people. Maybe viewing all this hardship will warm the heart of this dictator and convince him to stop unfairly running his country. Of course, he will do just that because this is a film that wants to have a happy ending. So don’t worry too much about our protagonists in this scenario: Claire will get her exclusive story, and Mason will get enough money for a comfortable suburban life.

Freelance is such a nothing movie that it’s almost aggravating how it has so much but leaves little to no impact. It’s not uncommon to see an action film of a similar scenario feel lifeless in how it proceeds through the violence with an almost passive portrayal. But this is a film with John Cena being underutilized, Alison Brie blustering in a lacking role, and Christian Slater saddled behind a phone for most of the film. It’s a weird sight, considering how this feels like a direct-to-video script reserved for either rising or falling actors. Even though Cena seems relegated to lacking comedies these days, he deserves better. Audiences deserve better than this adventure film, where even the thrilling helicopter crash holds small thrills amid a sea of blandness.