“There is something wrong with me.” Yelena (Florence Pugh)
Yelena is bored, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is, too, until Pugh manifests superior acting, inherited, so to speak, from her deceased sister Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson). As a member of the ragtag superheroes eventually called Thunderbolts, Yelena injects gravitas of the self-therapy kind, to make the titular group watchable and even interesting. Her father, Alexei (David Harbour) says, “The light inside you is dim, even by Eastern European standards.”
Easy enough you might say given the number of simple-minded explosions, fistfights, and flying around that populate another MCU. While this action film is derivative of other films that include the likes of The Avengers, it carves out new therapy as it seriously challenges the usual “Thor” stereotype of tough hero with amusing hangups and quips. Existentially struggling are would-be Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Bob (Lewis Pullman), all of whom were on a mission to kill each other.
This adventure offers a real hero with real thoughts about what value she offers the universe and what affect her family history of child abuse and neglect means as she tries to nourish her life with goodness.
In a larger perspective, each Thunderbolt is trying to find a place on the heroic spectrum, not without suffering, a prime example of the lost soul going through dynamic change with self-doubt and emerging heroism of a higher order than usual for a superhero quest.
The arch villain, CIA Director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), is a Trump-like schemer, more nuanced than the usual megalomaniac, with visions of ruling without impeachment. As for her sway over superheroes, she says, “The Avengers are not coming through that door. We have no reliable heroes.”
Other villains are in the heroes’ minds while they grapple with the demons from their pasts. This is not the first time Marvel principals struggle like this. Such interesting sidenotes make the adventure more real as they mitigate the absurdity of the physical fights.
Thunderbolts is light pre-summer fare, confusing at times, but with a cast that carries their absurdities with grace. Praise to director Jack Schreier and writers Eric Pearson and Joanna Cole for upgrading the proceedings with psycho-therapy. Stay for the end credits to make some sense of a mixed bag.
Thunderbolts*
Director: Jake Schreier (Robot and Frank)
Screenplay: Eric Pearson (Black Widow), Joanna Calo
Cast: Florence Pugh (Oppenheimer), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice)
Rating: PG-13 2h 6m
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com