Review of The Foreigner (2017) by Choen L — 11 Oct 2017

One of the first used cameras I bought from ebay was a black FM2n. The photos showed a well used camera, with black paint worn down to brass in some places. It arrived in a small brown box, and inside it was a lot of shredded paper which were used as cushioning the newspaper wrapped camera, which upon unwrapping, looked worse than the photos on the bidding site, with screws missing and dents which looked like it was used to hammer nails or stop bullets. However the camera's internals worked accurately, and the film winding mechanism was still smooth as butter. It felt wonderful in the hand.

There was something else inside the box- it was a hand written letter, penned as neatly as the writer could in blue on a piece of lined paper, torn out from a school exercise book.

I don't remember much of it now, except that the previous owner is a retired journalist, and that the camera made it's debut in Belfast during the Irish Troubles, I think of the 1985 or 1986 vintage, in which street riots took place, and street firefights between IRA fighters and British soldiers was probably a daily affair. The Troubles would end in 1998, having officially begun in 1968.

I bought the camera in 1999. I realized then I owned a piece of Northern Irish history, even if it might just be that of one man's.

'The Foreigner' is about this Northern Irish history. The titular foreigner played by Jackie Chan is just an innocent whose own grief stricken history got caught in the latest chapter of this Irish-British cross fire. His character is a bit like my beat up Nikon FM2n- seen it all, totally old and broken, but still with enough muscle memory left in his body to go on a quest to find out who did it.

Don't be fooled by the trailers. Those have totally undersold the premise of this film. This a proper political thriller, with twists and betrayals and a Pierce Brosnan giving one of the best performances of his career.