Joel Kinnaman Had A Brief Role In A Forgotten Denzel Washington Action Thriller
by Joe Roberts · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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Joel Kinnaman didn't have the best introduction to audiences outside his native Sweden when he co-starred in what might be one of the worst sci-fi movies of the 2010s. Having established himself with Swedish audiences thanks to director Daniel Espinosa's 2010 film "Easy Money," Kinnaman tried branching out with 2011's "The Darkest Hour." Thankfully that misstep was just a brief setback on his journey to international stardom. Bigger and better things were just around the corner, including the 2012 Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds action thriller "Safe House," which happened to be directed by his old pal Espinosa.
If there's one thing Denzel excels at, it's taking handsome white guy rookies under his wing and showing them the ropes. He mentored Ethan Hawke in "Training Day" (though in that instance he turned out to be anything but a mentor), he mentored Chris Pine in "Unstoppable," and in 2012 he exposed Ryan Reynolds to CIA corruption in "Safe House."
The film sees Reynolds' play a junior CIA officer who's forced to protect Denzel's ex-CIA officer turned international fugitive from a crew of mercenaries. Of course, the rookie ends up learning a thing or two along the way in a film that's basically an excuse for the ever-confident Denzel to smirk at everything his less experienced counterpart does and generally project an air of superiority. Usually, Denzel's charisma is enough to make such a setup work. In this case, however, "Safe House" didn't fare too well with critics. But it did make a decent profit and it did feature Kinnaman in a small but significant role.
Joel Kinnaman went toe-to-toe with Ryan Reynolds in Safe House
In 2011 Joel Kinnaman appeared in a good film, David Fincher's dispassionate thriller "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," and a bad one, the aforementioned "The Darkest Hour." A bit of a mixed bag, then. Thankfully, that same year saw Kinnaman debut as Stephen Holder in the excellent crime thriller series "The Killing." The AMC show lasted four seasons and was exactly what the actor needed to break out of his native Sweden. Then, a familiar face came calling. "Easy Money" director Daniel Espinosa was preparing to oversee a Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds thriller, and he needed someone to take a beating from Reynolds. He knew just the guy.
"Safe House" sees Reynolds play Junior CIA officer Matt Weston, whose job as "housekeeper" is to oversee a South African CIA safe house that hasn't seen much action. Frustrated, Weston pushes for a transfer to Paris. But things get a lot more interesting when the agency uses his facility to interrogate Washington's Tobin Frost, a former operative who's been on the run since being accused of betraying his agency. During his interrogation, the safe house is attacked by gunmen, and Weston flees with Frost in his charge.
As you might imagine given that setup, there are plenty of back-and-forths between the seasoned vet and the rookie as they're forced to spend extended periods together trying to outrun their attackers. While Weston initially tries to bring Frost back in, he eventually learns just how corrupt his agency is. By the time the pair make it to a second safe house, they've got no time for Kinnaman's housekeeper or his nonsense and hold him at gunpoint, only for him to fight back and almost get the better of Reynolds' increasingly harried agent.
Safe House wasn't a triumph but it was a decent little project for a young Joel Kinnaman
Does Joel Kinnaman have a lot to do in "Safe House?" Not really. Is the film one of Denzel Washington's best? Not really. But Kinnamon likely didn't care about either of those points. For one thing, he got to share his scenes with the two stars of the movie and even got a decent fight in. What's more, the film didn't exactly debut to unanimous praise, so it's probably for the best he wasn't featured any more than he was.
Whereas Daniel Espinosa and Kinnaman's previous collaboration, "Easy Money," was very well received by critics, "Safe House" sits at a devastatingly average 52% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Evidently, reviewers felt David Guggenheim's script was a tad thin, and even criticized the editing of the action scenes as being disorienting. The film also looks as though the colorist turned the contrast fader all the way to right, which makes it even harder to discern what the heck is going on in many of the action sequences.
"Safe House" was Espinosa's first English-language film, and clearly it wasn't a triumph. That said, it did earn $208.1 million on an $85 million budget, which ain't bad. "Safe House" also enjoyed a bit of a resurgence in 2023 when it topped the Netflix charts. With that in mind, it was a nice little showcase for Kinnaman, who was on his way to becoming the star we know him as today and almost certainly didn't mind being in a middling Denzel Washington thriller considering he'd just done "The Darkest Hour."