My quick rating – 6.3/10. We start out jamming to Cat People by David Bowie, and are shown that it is 1977, Detroit, and a bloodied Alan Ritchson tossing a body off a roof onto a speeding car, conveniently interrupting a car chase. And that is just the beginning of Motor City.
We hit the title shortly after a single shotgun blast loaded with an engagement ring. An engagement ring? I have a feeling we’re going to be doing some backtracking to figure out exactly how we got here.
Instead of wasting our time with some sappy love story, Motor City gives us a montage of John Miller (Ritchson) and Sophia (Shailene Woodley) meeting, courting, and generally being disgustingly happy together, right up until the police come along and ruin everyone’s afternoon. Miller has fallen for a local gangster’s girl, which, as you might imagine, is not a relationship the gangster is going to put on the Christmas card.
In retaliation, the gangster frames Miller and sends the innocent man to prison. Life ruined, girl stolen, beard growing, and rage accumulating, Miller eventually plots his revenge against the man who took everything from him. Silently, more on that later.
And this is where Motor City gets…interesting.
They absolutely nail the look and sound of the 1970s. The music, cars, clothing, grimy Detroit atmosphere. Everything looks like it was dragged straight out of the decade and told to stop complaining about the gas prices.
The acting job is also made considerably easier for Ben Foster as Reynolds. Just tell him not to say anything. LOL.
Because that’s the gimmick here. Motor City tells its entire story without dialogue. We’re treated to music-driven montages of Reynolds and Sophia dancing and enjoying their new life, periodically cutting back to John getting increasingly scraggly in prison and having increasingly violent fantasies about the people who screwed him over. Apparently, words were deemed unnecessary.
I still have no idea what Sophia’s little tantrum was supposed to accomplish, but hey, she had feelings and presumably wanted us to know about them.
The lack of dialogue is certainly a choice, and whether you think it’s brilliant or a gimmick will probably determine how much you enjoy this movie. Personally, I spent a decent chunk of it wondering when someone was finally going to say literally anything.
But when the violence kicks in, the movie gets considerably more interesting. The fight scenes are well done, and the elevator brawl is easily the best of ’em. John even manages to get a “leg up” during the proceedings. Literally. LOL.
It’s a dialogue-free revenge ride where action, music, and 1970s grit are doing all the talking. It doesn’t always work, but when Motor City cuts loose, it’s bloody, vicious, and genuinely entertaining. A strange little experiment that won’t be for everyone, but at least it has the good sense to toss someone off a roof.
