CLEANER Review: Martin Campbell’s High-Stakes Hostage Action Thriller Misses A Spot

Cleaner opens in U.S. theaters on February 21 from Quiver Distribution.

Daisy Ridley is back in the limelight these days, and facing two lead action roles in our immediate future with director Martin Campbell at the helm. The first order of business here is Cleaner, which pits Ridley against a small army of activists when they infiltrate a gala at an energy conglomerate where she works as a window cleaner.

The film kicks off with a flashback to preamble the current timeline in which we then meet Joey (Ridley), a twenty-something window cleaner for her corporate employers. When she’s not struggling to meet the needs of her irksome employers so as to not lose her job, the rest of her attention is spent on her autistic brother, Michael (Matthew Tuck), who’s just been kicked out of his special care facility.

Joey is forced to bring Michael along to her workplace, starting a day in which she’s already late with practically seconds away from getting fired. At the same time, the energy company she cleans for is planning a gala with hundreds of guests who are also expectant of a peculiar entertainment troupe to perform for them. Little do they know the events include a violent settling-in of armed environmental activists led by Marcus (Clive Owen), who intends on holding the exec and their cohorts accountable.

As the violence inside the building unfolds, Joey is left in the cradle alongside the tower, hanging far top the streets and realizing the predicament she’s in. With tactical units arriving and the pecking order of the terrorists unraveling with the unhinged actions of one of their own, it’s up to Joey to mitigate law enforcement’s efforts with her own, find a way in, rescue her brother, and end the siege once and for all.

What Cleaner aspires to be is unmissable with its “Die Hard” attributes amid the hype. Ridley is as great as you can expect in an action role succeeding from her time as a staff-wielding, lightsaber-swinging Jedi nearly decade earlier. She’s fun to watch here from top to bottom, bringing brilliance and wit to her character, with Tuck managing to shoehorn in an slightly plaguy, albeit useful role in Michael as the stakes escalate.

Woefully though, Cleaner leaves you watching Ridley’s character suspended in a cradle against a high-rise for period longer than necessary. It nearly overlaps the amount of time left before finally getting to see Joey do some gnarly John McClaine-type shit, something to which the film tries to make up for by brewing some interwoven suspense and upheaval for Marcus and the crusaders under his command.

This is where Taz Skylar’s character gets to shine a bit for the menace he is; The trailer and PR assets already give a little bit of that take away, so there’s no avoiding anything spoilery here of this nature. Owen’s role gets a surprisingly limited amount of screentime in this outing, compared to Skylar who certainly delivers as the film’s villain of choice.

I do admire the film’s nimble production detail and savviness with its balance between virtual and practical set pieces. My only wish is that Campbell spent a little less time milking the virtual soundstage and captializing a little more on fleshing Ridley out as a viable action star. It’s pretty underwhelming given that when the film finally kicks into overdrive, the movie feels a little less fully realized by credit roll.

The result, really, is more watered-down than preferred, which, depending on your tastes, shouldn’t be too much of a hassle if you generally don’t take umbrage to any particular nitpicks. Campbell’s resumé is an impressive one, something he tries to sustain in Cleaner for an audience that will surely appreciate this, at least, as a rental.