The Chaperone
PLOT:
Ray Bradstone (Levesque) is the best wheel man in the business, but he is determined to go straight and be the best parent he can be to his daughter, Sally (Ariel Winter), and make amends with his ex-wife, Lynne (Annabeth Gish). As Ray struggles to find honest work, his old bank-robbing crew, led by Phillip Larue (Corrigan), offers him one last job. He agrees at first, but changes his mind at the last second leaving the crew without a driver. Ray decides instead to serve as a chaperone for Sally’s school field trip. When the robbery goes awry, Larue blames Ray and chases the school bus all the way to the Museum of Natural History in New Orleans. Ray must deal with Larue, while supervising Sally’s class on what becomes one of the craziest school trips ever.
REVIEW:
Recall that movie Faster? You may remember it was about a falsely accused wheelman who just was released from prison. Well, The Chaperone is pretty much the same thing, only instead of the con going out for revenge, he sets out to rebuild his family, starting with his middle school-aged daughter.
As with most girls, she has some kind of emotion issue with him suddenly showing back up and wants nothing to do with him. Couple this with the fact that his ex-wife has remarried, and Ray thinks he has hit rock bottom…then his apartment burns down. Things can’t get worse for the guy, so he volunteers to be the wheelman for a bank heist, but realizes while he’s waiting for them to finish that he shouldn’t be there.
It turns out that the daughter, Sally, is going on a field trip to New Orleans (is it me or does every movie seem to be set in New Orleans these days), and he was asked to chaperone, but turned it down. As a bit of a getaway he jumps on the bus and makes it appear as if he’s a chaperone, much to the chagrin of everyone, except the teacher.
As the film progresses, the bank robbers track him down and threaten both the life of him and Sally in an attempt to get the money back. Ray also has to endure the world of being an ex-con and not being able to find a job and not have anyone’s trust. He does get some quality time with his daughter, which results in her changing her tune, and a few of her classmates are in his corner from day one as well.
The film ends with a confrontation between Ray and the bank robbers, after they kidnap Sally and drag her into a cemetery (they’re in New Orleans, it was either there or Bourbon St…lol). Ray goes in HHH mode and saves his daughter, as well as proves his innocence for the time he was away but this current crime he was accused of.
I honestly thought this was going to be an epic fail of a film, but it really wasn’t. The major theme of Ray searching for reconciliation and wanting to start over was quite refreshing, because with a big guy like Triple H, they very well could have had him become some kind of brute enforcer (as he is in the other films he’s been in).
The chemistry between him and the little girl was pure magic. I felt as if there could have been a bit more comedy in the comedy film. Yeah, there were a few belly laughs here and there, mostly due to the incompetent criminals, but nothing more. That was a bit of a let down for me.
The real surprise here wasn’t necessarily the fact that I liked this picture so much, but rather that it was directed by the same guy who did Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Mr. Holland’s Opus. Yeah, I didn’t know those films were by the same guy, either. Guess it just shows he has range.
In his heyday on top of the WWE, Triple H was a main attraction, usually involved in a rivalry with Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock. I find it interesting the similarities between this film and the latter’s Faster. I can’t help bt wonder if that was done on purpose.
Well, what is the final verdict on The Chaperone? Well, it isn’t horrible, but it isn’t great, either. The film has issues, but if you’re just looking for a sweet film with a wrestler to watch with the family and don’t really want to take a chance on Tooth Fairy or The Game Plan, then this is for you.
2 3/4 out of 5 stars
