High-rise action, eco-terrorists, and clunky dialogue make for a messy watch in ‘Cleaner.’
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
OK, so you are a film set in a high-rise that has just been taken over by terrorists who kill a few people to prove they’re serious and then hold the rest hostage, keeping the police at bay with threats to murder the rest. What the terrorists don’t know is that someone with professional firearm and combat training is also in their midst. What is the name of your movie? It’s “Die Hard.” right?
Not in 2025 it isn’t. It’s “Cleaner,” and instead of Bruce Willis in an iconic performance as the immortal New York City Detective John McClane, we get “Star Wars” veteran Daisy Ridley in another just OK turn. She’s Joanna “Joey” Locke, a young Englishwoman who, as a child, climbed out of the high-rise flat when her parents fought over her brother and perched on a window ledge. Foreshadowing?
Joey has mysteriously dropped out of the military after four years and now works as a window cleaner, dangling off a tall tower (not Nakatomi; in reality, it’s London’s One Canada Square, the tallest building in the UK). Joey has a gigantic chip on her shoulder. She drops F-bombs like mad, and her lovable, autistic brother Michael (Matthew Tuck) has just been fired from his work at a care facility. Adult Michael carries a junior-sized version of Thor’s hammer everywhere he goes. You heard me.
Together, they go to the tower where Joey works, harassed by her young male superiors and ordered to clean up disgusting (and symbolic?) “bird strikes,” only to find that the high-rise is taken over by climate-change terrorists led by Marcus Blake (a transient Clive Owen). Blake has a barbaric loose cannon among his cohorts named Noah Santos (Taz Sklar), who murders one of the CEOs of the energy corporation, whose “shareholder gala” the masked and costumed terrorists have taken over.
Directed by none other than Martin Campbell, who once upon a time directed the 2006 James Bond extravaganza “Casino Royale.” This no doubt explains why the fights, explosions and other mayhem are handled quite well by all involved. What “Cleaner” cannot get around is that dubious, low-rent screenplay by Matthew Orton (“Operation Finale”), Simon Uttley, and Paul Andrew Williams (“Bull”). The dialogue is as derivative as the plot. The “victims” are even more awful than their captors. The high-wire antics are canned. A knockout gas routine is particularly risible. “We are ‘Earth’s Revolution,” Owen declares upon taking control of the building. Oof. Michael is a big Piers Morgan fan, which made it hard for me to sympathize with him.
It turns out that Noah is a member of a “fringe-fringe” group that believes humans should be wiped out so that Mother Earth can renew herself. Noah kills someone by shoving a bottle of Champagne down his throat. I was not sure how that killed him (sounds delicious). The terrorist’s tech specialist, Zee (Flavia Watson), is not on board with Noah’s takeover. Some action is nonsensical.
Of course, a cop on the ground named DS Hume (a quite good Ruth Gemmel of “Bridgerton”) bonds with Joey over the phone. They reminisce about terrible childhoods. Some of Joey’s scenes with Michael are also well-acted and warm. But Michael’s supposed tech genius is a cliché, and “Cleaner” never (excuse my pun) rises above the level of the usual B-grade Netflix fare. Joey uses an “Avengers” analogy concerning those blighted “infinity stones” to explain to Joey what they will steal from the bad guys. It’s patronizing and boring. Noah has arranged to have a “dead man switch” strapped to his wrist. When and if his pulse stops, everything goes kaboom. As her name suggests, Ridley’s short-haired Joey is somewhat masculine. She has no love interest, lives alone, kicks men’s and women’s asses equally, and is a likable enough figure, especially in terms of her devotion to her brother. As you might expect from the director of “Casino Royale” and 1995’s “GoldenEye,” the production values are pretty high for a relatively low-budget film. But overall, “Cleaner” is a big, fat “Yippee Ki-Nay.”
‘Cleaner’
Rating: R for violence, language throughout, and brief drug use.
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Matthew Tuck, Clive Owen
Director: Martin Campbell
Writer: Matthew Orton Simon Uttley, Paul Andrew Williams
Running Time: 1 hour, 38 minutes
Where to Watch: AMC Boston Common, AMC Liberty Tree Mall, and other suburban theaters
Grade: C+
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