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With: Aaron Eckhart, Olga Kurylenko, Alex Pettyfer, Chris Petrovski, Laëtitia Eïdo, Nick Moran, Daniel Bernhardt, Nina Bergman, James Faulkner, Jonathan Ajayi, Kris Johnson, Isobel Wood, Josef Cannon
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Written by: George Mahaffey
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Directed by: Jesse V. Johnson
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MPAA Rating: NR
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Running Time: 98
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Date: 05/03/2024
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Wife Flop
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jesse V. Johnson's generic spy thriller Chief of Station consists of rudimentary action and chase scenes, tons of exposition (characters explaining the plot to each other), and textbook twists, none of which has any life or spark.
Ben Malloy (Aaron Eckhart), an ex-CIA Station Chief, finishes a job in Eastern Europe with his partner John Branca (Alex Pettyfer), and prepares to celebrate his wedding anniversary with his wife, Farrah (Laëtitia Eïdo). Unfortunately, a terrible explosion rocks the restaurant and Farrah is killed.
Ben mourns, until he gets a tip that there might be something more sinister afoot, and that his wife's death might not have been an accident. Things get more and more dangerous as he begins to cross paths with various criminals, and his son, Nick (Chris Petrovski) is kidnapped. Ben must discover the secret of a message that Farrah left behind, and then, with the help of an old colleague of Farrah's, Krystyna Kowerski (Olga Kurylenko), survive a final showdown.
Chief of Station goes through the motions in such a cursory way that it's a wonder the characters aren't yawning their way through the dialogue. We have the Unconnected Opening Scene, the scene in which the wife shockingly dies, except it's not so shocking since it has been set up in the most familiar way possible. Then there's a betrayal that comes as no surprise, since the villain practically wears their villainy on their face.
And so it goes, as we get to a chase scene in which two cars lazily cruise alongside each other at mediums speeds, and that old chestnut in which the Big Bad faces consequences when the Terrible Truth about him starts simultaneously popping up on everyone's phones.
Directed by Johnson (White Elephant, One Ranger), each of these scenes looks more or less professional, with fine use of locations, and there's even a genuine sense of grief over the character's dead wife. But it's just that the storytelling is so lackluster, done with the most minimal of effort, that it's irritating. Chief of Station isn't good enough to be chief of anything.
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