You know you’re a Dakota Fanning fan when you recognize most of the things written down on her IMDB page and when you watch a movie solely because you saw her name on the credits.

 

That said, I must say, I am a Dakota Fanning fan, apparently.  She’s such a good actress it’s ridiculous.  When one signs up for something that she was involved in, it’s almost guaranteed to be not a let down.

A couple of weeks ago I saw Push in the theaters.  And since I basically knew nothing about the movie, except for the fact that Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning were in it, there were no expectations.  Which, in this case, was a good thing.

The story opens up with a narrative by Dakota Fanning’s character explaining how there’re “special beings” on this world that have incredible powers.  There’re the ‘watchers’ who can see the future, the ‘movers’ who can move objects with their minds, the ‘pushers’ who can insert thoughts into your head and make you believe that they’re real.  Very early in the movie one learns that it’s the Nazi’s fault; it is explained that these special beings have been hunted down and experimented upon by the Nazi’s, trying to create a super weapon for the war.  When that didn’t fall through, some agency called the “Division” is continuing the task of weeding out the best of the best of these people and trying to inject them with some kind of serum that’ll multiply their abilities by a hundred fold.

Which brings us to modern-day Hong Kong where Chris Evan’s Nick Grant is hiding out from the Division and trying to make a living by scamming people using his gifts.  Then Dakota Fanning’s Cassie Holmes comes into the picture, offering him a lot of money to help her get a case that the Division is after.  The only problem is that Cassie, a watcher, can only see so far into the future so she doesn’t know the specifics yet.

First things first, Chris Evans’ Nick Grant is believably enough, although it is a tough piece to swallow that someone as good looking as him can possibly live out somewhere as a recluse.  On any other actor I’m sure that the fact that Nick’s father died right in front of his eyes would’ve been a central issue for motivation, but since Chris Evans isn’t the most flexible of actors out there, he used the excuse of indifference quite convincingly.  He didn’t take off his shirt as much though, which might cause a problem for people who’re looking for some kind of eye candy.

Dakota Fanning’s Cassie Holmes was great, needless to say.  It was a cardboard character but she made it work.  And she looked so cool as a goth as well!  I guess this movie was her way of announcing to the world that she can do teenaged roles now that she’s actually a teenager?  Maybe.  You can actually feel her frustration at the fact that she can’t see the details of her own death come off her in waves. 

Djimon Hounsou as The Division’s Henry Carver, unbelievably enough, fitted the villainous role quite snugly.  And I’m not saying that just because he’s colored or anything; he really did seem like he believed the mantra of the division and made the Pusher Henry Carver feel spooky but in that classy non-creepy way. 

Camilla Belle’s Kira Hudson was supposed to be the character tying the whole story together but I guess since Dakota Fanning has more star power than anybody else in the cast, she just sort of fades away into the background.  Hey, she got to wear all those cool outfits and got to kiss Chris Evans, that’s got to account for something, yes?

The movie is of the type that just takes you for a ride, a smooth one so you don’t end up complaining along the way.  There were a lot of plot holes along the way so you can’t really use your sense of logic against it; you’d lose and you’d end up frustrated.  You’d just have to sit back and enjoy the ride from the seats, which was exactly what I had done.  I’m still not sure if I got the ending right or not; it became a blur of confusion somewhere along the last twenty minutes, but since I didn’t have any expectations of any sort, I still came out happy and unscathed.

Paul McGuigan did an okay job directing it as far as I’m concerned.  I mean, he did get the story across and those screaming scenes were actually kind of funny, but my only problem with him was that it took me at least half an hour to figure out the fact that the whole movie was set in Hong Kong.  For the first thirty minutes I happily thought that the whole thing was in Tokyo or something. 

And here’s my real problem with this movie: the fact that Dakota Fanning generates way too much chemistry with Chris Evans on screen.  Way too much in fact that the whole Camilla Belle/Chris Evans love angle is no longer believable for me.  I think that that’s just sad, that a thirteen year old can out-act somebody older.  She’s supposed to be this teenager who has mother issues and I guess it’s only realistic that her character gets a bit jealous when Kira comes into the picture but don’t you think it’s a tad out of line when you root for Cassie?  Instead of Kira, the supposed nice girl, mary sue?  Anybody else see the connection? Or was that just me?

All in all, it was still a very entertaining movie.  Just go for the ride though; don’t try to fight it.

 7.7/10 because of the Cassie/Nick implications XD