Push (2009) Movie Review

Paul McGuigan’s “Push” is like the X-Men without the goofy outfits and codenames. That’s really the best way to describe the film, a mixture of comic book action-adventure and crime caper. Written by David Bourla and directed by McGuigan (“Lucky Number Slevin”), I’ve been interested in “Push” ever since the first time I heard about it years ago, although it appears as if the film’s plot has morphed somewhat, because the first time I heard about the film it sounded more like a heist flick with superpowered criminals. In any case, the finished product boasts a wonderful cast and is quite entertaining from beginning to end, so in that respect you can probably forgive it for being a tad too generic for its own good.

The film stars Chris Evans (the Human Torch from the “Fantastic Four” films) as Nick Gant, a psychic who can move things with his mind. Nick is a bit out of practice, and makes his living in the Hong Kong playgrounds throwing dice, though he seems to lose more than he wins. Enter young Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a clairvoyant who appears out of the blue to inform Nick that he’s going to help her steal a McGuffin suitcase and at the same time help a runaway psychic that everyone wants bad but Nick has yet to meet, though everyone keeps telling him he’s destined to come to her aid. Meanwhile, on their tail is the dangerous Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou), a Government agent in charge of an ominous department called The Division, whose singular goal is to control and turn psychics of the world into weapons of mass destruction.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning. As the film opens, Cassie Holmes helpfully fills us in on the details of “Push’s” world. Psychics exist, going by “movers”, “sniffers”, “dreamers”, and other catchy monikers. Basically, mutants born with powers. The film posits that back in 1945, those wacky Nazis were the first to try to use psychics as supersoldiers. Since then, other governments have created their own versions of Division. America’s is run by Carver, and he’s just lost a very big piece of his super soldier program when Kira (Camille Belle), the first psychic to ever survive a serum meant to increase her powers, absconds with said serum. Got all that?

So, the film itself. It’s definitely very comic book cool, so anyone who grew up reading comics will have a blast with it. The main characters are fun to hang out with, from the broke Nick and his unpolished powers to Cassie, a psychic who can see the future but can barely draw what she sees cause she’s a sucky artist. Kira is a pusher, someone who can put thoughts into your head as long as she can lock eyes with you. The film features a ton of great superpowers, including a pair of Chinese screamers (their names usually give away their powers, natch), and a woman who can reset broken bones, and also break them as well.

Thanks to a healthy budget, the film offers excellent production values and its various superpowers are rendered believable onscreen, with McGuigan going the creative editing route whenever he needs to show more subtle powers like mind-reading, clairvoyance, or Kira’s pushing abilities. Setting the film almost entirely in the heavy populated city-island of Hong Kong was also a novel idea, though the absence of Chinese Division types means the film loses out on a very nifty chance to explore what it means to have different nation’s Divisions within one’s midst. Instead of viable Chinese counterparts, the film instead gives us some Chinese gangsters who want what Kira has stashed in their city. The Chinese psychics make for minor diversions, but it’s too bad their motives are so uninspired.

“Push” fields a good cast, notably in leads Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning. Camilla Belle doesn’t bring all that much to the film, and indeed at times she comes across as lifeless, dead weight, but she’s certainly easy enough on the eyes, so there’s that. Supporting turns by Ming-Na (E.R.) as a sniffer who makes her living reading fortunes to cuckold husbands, and Neil Jackson as a more polished, nastier version of Nick Gant add to the film. Unfortunately, I’ve never brought Djimon Hounsou as a villain. As with his role in Michael Bay’s “The Island”, there’s something about Hounsou that always deceives me into believing he’s not as evil as the film makes him out to be, that at any moment he’ll surprise us by turning into a good guy. So despite the many despicable things Carver does in the film, he just never quite hits the right notes as the villain of the piece.

I also have some issues with the film’s scripting, which at times borders on the illogical. (And yes, I am fully aware that I am attempting to apply logic to a movie about people who can push objects around with their minds. Give me a sec, I swear I’m going somewhere with this.) It’s never really clear what this omnipresent Division is trying to achieve – create a super army of psychics? Don’t they already have those? Why the urgency to create even super-er super people? Is there some kind of psychic arms race going on between the nations that we aren’t being told about? Also, there is a very important point in the movie where the hapless Nick, who hasn’t won a single fight since we’ve known him, suddenly develops uber foresight and knows everything that needs to be done, by whom, and when. So, er, when did Nick get so smart? No idea. He just is because the film needed him to be at that point. But perhaps I’m nitpicking.

Overall, I enjoyed the film for what it is – a comic book movie without the comic book background. Despite the film’s prevalence of people with abilities, no one ever slips on a costume and tries to fight crime or rob a bank with some henchmen. Though the film definitely misses out on some prime opportunity to explore a world filled with superpowered people in more intimate details, it nevertheless makes for an entertaining two hours. In that respect, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a nice comic book read. It’s not going to blow your mind, but it certainly has the makings of a satisfying sit-through.

Paul McGuigan (director) / David Bourla (screenplay)
CAST: Djimon Hounsou … Henry Carver
Dakota Fanning … Cassie Holmes
Camilla Belle … Kira Hudson
Neil Jackson … Victor Budarin
Chris Evans … Nick Gant
Maggie Siff … Teresa Stowe
Ming-Na … Emily Hu
Nate Mooney … Pinky Stein