Who would have thought Bob Odenkirk would make a convincing action hero? You might say there’s precedence in seeing older action heroes with Liam Neeson, but Odenkirk seems decisively more every-man in appearance. You have seen him bust out his acting chops in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Now you get to watch him bust some faces in the generally entertaining Nobody.
Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is stuck in a metaphorical purgatory, in an endless routine involving narrowly missing the garbage truck everyday and going to his dead-end job at his father-in-law’s manufacturing business. His routine is interrupted one day when two robbers break into his house and beat his son when he tries to fight them. Hutch, who has a golf club in hand, doesn’t hit the robbers when he sees that their gun is unloaded. However, after people judge him for not trying to take a swing and then learning his daughter’s kitty-cat bracelet is missing, Hutch gives into his violent urges and goes hunting for the robbers.
You see, Hutch is actually a government ‘auditor’ who was sent in to take care of people who the government didn’t want to go to trial. Although his revenge against the robbers proves to be unsatisfactory, he lunges at the opportunity to blow off steam when a group of men start harassing a woman during a bus ride late at night. Of course, one of the men he beats up turns out to be the brother of a dangerous mob boss, who vows revenge.
It’s hard to ignore the similarities between Nobody and John Wick, and that’s partly because it’s written by the same writer, Derek Kolstad. Bob Odenkirk contacted Kolstad and asked him to do a similar story with Odenkirk as a star. The resulting movie is more like a complementary cousin to the John Wick franchise. The action, at first, is brutal as Odenkirk gets hit as many times as, if not more than, the times he lands hits. Over time, however, it progressively gets more and more ridiculous until it reaches the climax, where it feels more like an Expendables movie than a simple revenge flick.
Another major difference between John Wick and Nobody is that Hutch thrives in violence and longs for it. “The difference is Bob’s character doesn’t need to go back, he wants to,” director Ilya Naishuller said in an interview with Inverse. “He’s addicted to violence, to an exciting life. Nobody is a different beast. I know Bob is a different actor from Keanu. Nobody is a deeper film. There’s more happening below the surface.”
Nobody would have hardly worked without Odenkirk firing on all cylinders.
He makes both versions of himself plausible. And then there’s how wonderfully he embraces the physicality of his role.
As good and well-made as the film is, it does squander the opportunity to reflect on Hutch’s flaws in the way Breaking Bad puts Walter White on trial for his behavior. Of course, Nobody is hardly trying to be prestige television, but a deeper exploration would have added more nuance to Hutch’s character.
If you are in the mood for a classic ‘middle-aged-man-snaps-and-goes-on-a-violent-spree’ story, you can’t go wrong with Nobody. Like John Wick, maybe Nobody will spawn a franchise as well. In that case, let’s hope we get to explore the character more in addition to the well-produced action.