‘A Working Man' review: Jason Statham solves a Chicago sex trafficking problem

Chicago Tribune

28-03-2025

Jason Statham's latest thriller 'A Working Man' is 'Taken,' if 'Taken' took place in Chicago and Joliet and their environs.
For those who don't live in the area, Joliet is a 45-minute or so drive southwest of Chicago, depending on traffic. 'A Working Man' imagines an insidious sex trafficking network run by Russian mobsters in very silly tracksuits, whose owners clearly are just asking for it. What is 'it'? 'It' is Statham. Based on the book 'Levon's Trade,' the first of 12 Chuck Dixon novels, this overripe exercise in vigilante slaughter casts Stathan as Royal Marines veteran Levon Cade, now working as a construction foreman for a family-run company.
Levon is up against it, life-wise. He's fighting to retain co-parenting custody of his daughter, he's sleeping in his car and he's struggling to keep a lid on his most violent impulses, without which, of course, there would be no movie.
In the line of duty, he has killed plenty; his American wife committed suicide prior to the film's timeline, while he was away. It's a lot for one person to shoulder, but in this realm of action fantasy, there's only so much emotional realism allowed. In 'A Working Man,' when someone encourages Levon to work through his probable post-traumatic stress disorder, it's practically a laugh line and treated as dismissible woke nonsense.
The screenplay adaptation comes from Sylvester Stallone and director David Ayer, and it has a sure sense of what Statham's audience wants and doesn't want. In the previous Ayer/Statham meetup 'The Beekeeper,' the star took on online scam artists and massive political corruption; in 'A Working Man,' it's sex trafficking. When the daughter (Arianna Rivas) of Statham's weak, indulgent boss (Michael Peña) is abducted, it's up to Levon, his scowl and his dazzling combat skills to save this surrogate daughter, while securing his relationship with his own daughter (Isla Gie).
Once abducted, the Rivas character falls out of the movie for a long while. There's too much killing to do to accommodate her. Stabbing, impaling, shooting and neck-snapping his way from Chicago to Joliet, Levon leaves 50-plus bodies (of Russians and Latinos, mostly) strewn all over the Land of Lincoln as he uncovers the sorry depths of Russian mob corruption.
This includes cops on the take and a Joliet roadhouse drug dealer (Chidi Ajufo) who livens things up. Levon goes undercover as a meth customer as part of his rescue mission. During Statham's entertaining initial scene with Ajufo — the movie has its moments, and a few diverting blurs of fast-cut mayhem — we get the line we've been waiting for, delivered by Ajufo's Mr. Big, a man who outfits his German biker helmet with enormous stag horns. In the bar, he regards Levon, who one of the baddies suspects is undercover law enforcement. Looking at Statham's mitts, Ajufo says: 'You ain't a cop.' (Pause, camera zips in for a close-up.) 'You're a working man. '
Director Ayer may have hit the bloody sweet spot more engagingly in 'The Beekeeper,' but you can't say he's not trying things here. Visually, 'A Working Man' flips from absurd stylization (love that Joliet roadhouse, which looks gaudy enough for Caligula) to handheld faux-realism and back again. Several points in the climax have a comically enormous full moon serving as backdrop. As arguments for vigilante justice go, this one appears likely to lead to a sequel or three — and unless the filmmakers are dolts, they'll jolly well bring back Gunny, the blind combat vet with a devotion to archery, so drolly underplayed by David Harbour.
Running time: 1:56
How to watch: Premieres in theaters March 28