The last thing I expected out of the action-packed flick Brick Mansions — Paul Walker’s last completed film — was a political statement.
Picture this: in 2018 Detroit, run-down mansions now house criminals. They litter a corrupt area abandoned by the government, stripped of schools and hospitals and sectioned off with a containment wall. Tremaine Alexander (RZA) is the unofficial leader of desolate Brick Mansions, an ex-soldier who turned to drug dealing to ease the pain of those left behind.
Enter Damian Collier (Walker), an undercover detective seeking revenge, and his unlikely partner, ex-convict Lino (David Belle), who is trying to restore normalcy to Brick Mansions.
The film features an abundance of dramatic parkour — Belle is one of the eight founders of the building-jumping sport, and it definitely shows — and semi-gory brawls. But there’s a surprising underlying message about gentrification, i.e., the replacement of lower class neighbourhoods with middle class ones, as the film tackles corrupt governments that neglect underprivileged communities.
In a nutshell, the movie is about class warfare and the things it encompasses — such as racism. (It was no mistake that Brick Mansions housed mostly people of colour.) The lines between good and evil are challenged and those characters who were villainised at first became heroes, while faux champions fall from grace.
Of course, having Walker’s character as the protagonist tinges the film with a white industrial saviour complex, but he seems less like the catalyst for change and more like an oblivious vessel through which it occurs. Another cliche is the damsel in distress storyline once Lino’s girlfriend is kidnapped, making her one of two women in the film — frustratingly typical for a male-centric action flick.
The posthumous factor of the film doesn’t go unnoticed. Car chases involving Walker behind the wheel are uncomfortable to watch — he drives a van through a glass wall and loses control of the brakes and steering wheel. But the real tearjerker comes after the film’s hopeful ending is juxtaposed with Walker’s photo and the message: “In loving memory of Paul Walker.” You won’t need a box of tissues for the movie itself — which had its humorous moments — but that final goodbye might break you down.
