Posted by Directed by Vicky Jewson and managing to sneak onto Netflix with next to no fanfare is Close, an action thriller starring The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo star Noomi Rapace. Noomi is Close Protection Officer Sam Carlson who is hired to protect Zoe Tanner (Sophie Nélisse) who, after her dad’s death, unexpectedly inherits the family business Hassine Mining over her stepmum. As Sam delights in telling us, high net worth individuals like Zoe are ripe targets for kidnapping and extortion – especially given the lucrative mining contract hanging in the balance.
Sam Carlson is based on the real life bodyguard Jacquie Davis, who looked after everyone from CEOs to royalty, popstars to politicians, and she even trained Noomi for the role. The result being the tough yet tender Ms Rapace, with a fondness for cigarettes and combat, is the films main attraction making the best of the rather samey material she has been given. It is further proof that Ms Rapace needs more starring roles and maybe a big action franchise of her own. Newcomer Sophie Nélisse is no slouch either and is believable as the unruly wild child thrown in at the deep end.
It is fast paced and full of chase scenes, brutal fights and lots of violence, the highlights being Noomi showing she can literally fight with her hands tied behind her back and a rather striking underwater tussle. Those aside, this film – like the Kate Bush cover during the opening credits – is rather run of the mill. The outlandish action, the blood and one or two standout performances mask what is otherwise a bog standard blockbuster the likes of which you have seen a thousand times before – 2018’s Mile 22 starring Mark Wahlberg and American Assassin the year before with Michael Keaton to name but two.
5/10
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