Daisy Ridley’s Die Hard Knockoff, Cleaner, Has Some Fun Action But Little Else

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Going into the new Daisy Ridley action movie, Cleaner, I assumed the title referred to one of those hit-man-type fixer characters who dispose of bodies and assorted undesirables in the wake of jobs gone wrong, such as the immortal “Victor the Cleaner,” portrayed by Jean Reno in Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita. (“I’m Victor, the Cleaner.” Pew-pew.) But no, the movie is about an actual window cleaner working at the Shard, the real-life London skyscraper that happens to be the tallest building in Britain. Of course, when our hero winds up in the middle of a violent terrorist takeover and hostage standoff, she must use her special set of skills as an ex-soldier to handle the situation. So, it’s less La Femme Nikita and more Die Hard in … a building, much like the original Die Hard.

Surprisingly, there’s a glimmer of optimism here. While many films imitating “Die Hard” fall short, there’s a longstanding trend of movies from the 90s, to be precise, that took the “Die Hard” concept and excelled. Movies like “Speed”, “Under Siege”, “Cliffhanger”, “The Rock”, and several others follow this pattern. (For an enjoyable exploration of this genre, listen to the podcast “Die Hard on a Blank” by Liam Billingham and Phil Gawthorne.) The film “Cleaner” is directed by Martin Campbell, a renowned action director who has delivered movies such as “Goldeneye”, “Casino Royale”, and “The Mask of Zorro”. Despite not receiving studio blockbusters anymore, he still delivers high-quality action films. (His last film, the gritty war thriller “Dirty Angels”, was released by Lionsgate in December 2021. I was among the few who enjoyed his 2022 Liam Neeson film “Memory”, but I wasn’t as fond of his 2021 film “The Protégé” starring Maggie Q and Michael Keaton.) Campbell’s direction ensures that when chaos ensues, we are in capable hands.

Unfortunately, the script and the performances for Cleaner falter before the mayhem starts. As Joey Locke, the overworked window washer frustrated with her thankless job in a corporate building, Ridley deploys the same glower for every challenge her character faces. The film opens with Joey as a young girl, hiding out in the kitchen while her family fights in another room and then acrobatically free-climbing her way across the cabinets and toward an open window, where she can be alone with her thoughts. When we next catch Joey, she’s all grown up and trying to deal with the fact that her autistic brother, Michael (Matthew Tuck), has been kicked out of yet another institution. Not knowing where to take him, Joey brings Michael to work with her. Thus, when a group of ecoterrorists led by a longtime activist (Clive Owen) seizes a fancy-dress party for an energy company and starts killing people and making demands, the situation gains extra urgency: Michael is trapped somewhere inside the building. Stuck outside on a movable cleaning platform hundreds of feet in the air, Joey is the only person close enough to the situation to intervene. But she’s also, well, stuck outside on a movable cleaning platform hundreds of feet in the air.

This concept could be quite intriguing, but the script (written by Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams, and Matthew Orton) unfortunately detracts from its potential with awkward dialogue and forced character development. The portrayal of Michael’s neurodivergence seems more like a hastily thought-out plot device rather than an authentic representation of his character. Additionally, the fact that the protagonist remains static for most of the film contributes to unnecessary, dialogue-heavy padding at times. It’s conceivable that a more compelling version of this movie could exist, where communication issues faced by the cleaner add to the suspense instead of being discussed excessively.

In simpler terms, the action scenes in this movie are well-executed, particularly one intense fight scene set in a boiler room where characters’ faces are burned by steam pipes. Ridley may not give Joey much depth as a character, but she certainly delivers on the physicality, making it seem like she’s enjoying every moment of the numerous fights. The movie Cleaner seems to have poured a lot of effort into its action sequences and little else, which might explain why it feels so forgettable. Given that this type of film usually gets a brief release nowadays, it’s not surprising that it feels disposable.

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2025-02-21 23:54