The thing about immortals is that their central conflict has a relatability problem. For everything from Tuck Everlasting to Interview with a Vampire to The Good Place season 4, their driving ennui—that immortality has a downside of severe emotional lethargy—is one that while we can never understand has to somehow be addressed in the narrative.
This is the discussion that The Old Guard circles back around to over and over, with somewhat mixed results: Here is a crew of “immortals,” led by Andy (Charlize Theron), whom we’re led to believe is very, very old. She commands Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Nicky (Luca Marinelli), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and new-arrival Nile (Kiki Layne), as they work to secretly right the wrongs and avoid mysterious powers who target them for their power.
Old Guard is based on a comic book of the same name, but—unlike the studio tentpoles these days—they are not weighed down by the baggage of the property. That leaves director Gina Prince-Bythwood a whole lot of leeway to create something softer, more introspective. The fight is never that far for Andy’s crew, but the movie lets the stunt work be informed by the patient character work happening in between, allowing action to feel more like it punctuates these people’s lives than the other way around. As they sit and contemplate what they’ve done and who they’ve lost, the camera sits close, lingering on the loss that spills over their face. In the end, we are just as delighted to see Andy source a baklava by taste as we are to see her wipe out nameless SWAT members sent to abduct her.
Theron’s ability to kick ass is, by now, well-known. Old Guard has her much more in 1,000-yard-stare, Furiosa mode than zany, Longshot “having it all” frustration. It could be tedious, but she is always balanced in the story—whether by Nile’s outsider perspective, or Nicky and Joe’s florid confession of love for one another.
The crew, like the film, functions like clockwork, always aware of where they have to be even if they can’t quite get there. Their stunt choreography is graphic and well-done (if that’s not too gauche to say in conjunction with each other): we never lose track of who is where, meaning a single falter can speak volumes about a character’s ability. There’s sharp cuts from editor Terilyn A. Shropshire, which alternates the scope between wider action and the intimate drama undergirding the whole thing. With such artful construction, there’s no bloated feeling after so many showdowns; each fight brings new stakes, and never loses steam for the story.
What’s so valuable about the film is how it does all this with a some-what doddering emotional core of immortality. Again, it’s just a hard drum to keep beating in a meaningful way, and the audience is likely to tire of it much faster than they would of actual immortality. But Prince-Bythwood’s direction, married to Greg Rucka’s script allows for a natural rhythm to form, an inhale-exhale of mundanity of their plight mixed with a resolve to do something about it.
There’s not much that will throw you in The Old Guard plotwise, but as art isn’t a puzzle to be solved, who cares if you can see a twist coming a mile away? The important thing is that the motivation feels always earned, that the stakes feel vital to informing the character themselves. It’s a skill that Old Guard never leaves far from its heart or its mind, and so when their credit teaser comes you’ll find yourself wishing that Netflix could just roll you right into the next one.
