Watch a bunch of John Wick movies all in a row, and you can get pretty paranoid.
You start to think everyone’s an assassin. The guy at the newsstand, the street musician, the subway rider, that nice neighbor in the elevator — ruthless contract killers, all.
So perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising that in “From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” the latest installment in the Wickian world, we reach the logical endpoint: a town where every single inhabitant’s a killer. Yes, it’s a picture-perfect, snowy winterscape in Austria, where everyone wears wool beanies and very nice sweaters. But they also wield a mean flamethrower, and schoolkids have mandatory shooting practice.
The early scenes in this wacky place high in the mountains are the best part of “Ballerina” — they actually contain deft surprises and even a glimmer of humor, which is hardly something we expect in a John Wick film. (Have you ever see the guy smile?) Watching our energetic star, Ana de Armas, engage in a plate-smashing contest with a sweet waitress-turned-vicious-killer reminds us that action can be clever, even if most scenes in this series inevitably become numbing, as the body count rises stratospherically.
Before we go further, some clarification on where this film fits into the timeline. Let’s forget (for now) that there was a John Wick 4, because the events of “Ballerina” take place during the third movie. So, erase from your mind whatever huge, life-altering thing may or may not have happened in the last film. OK?
Eagle-eyed viewers may, in fact, remember a brief scene in the third movie where a ballerina is trying to do a series of fouettés, those whiplash turns on one leg that are a big attraction in “Swan Lake.” The same scene returns in “Ballerina,” where we see de Armas’ character, Eve, doggedly trying to master them in training. Why she keeps falling — every time, after years and years of class — is a mystery. We don’t aim for full realism in action films, guys, but may we suggest that falling flat on the floor in your pointe shoes every time you do a turn feels like much more difficult stunt work than anything else in “Ballerina” — including obliterating a horde of townspeople. It also speaks to a troubling lack of coordination, a definite problem for an assassin.
Anyway! We actually first meet Eve as a child, living alone with her cherished father in some wind-swept coastal abode. Suddenly, a crew of black-clad assassins arrives by sea, targeting the father. He manages to protect Eve, but dies from his wounds.
Soon, now-orphaned Eve is approached by Winston (Ian McShane, returning) owner of the Continental Hotel. Winston says he can bring her to her father’s family. He takes her to The Director (a haughty Anjelica Huston), who welcomes the budding dancer to what seems an elite ballet academy but is also the training ground of the Ruska Roma, the crime organization where Wick himself learned his trade.
The years go by. Eve is now a young woman determined to strike out on her own, though she still has problems completing a fouetté turn. (“Tend to your wounds before you get sepsis and we have to cut off your feet,” the Director suggests helpfully.) Luckily she shows more aptitude with firearms. And that’s important, because her overriding goal is to avenge the death of her father. So when Wick himself (Keanu Reeves, of course, appearing in a few key scenes) makes a crucial stop at the academy, Eve looks at him and asks, “How do I get out of here?”
“The front door is unlocked,” Wick replies – a line that got applause at the screening I was at, but so did virtually everything Wick said or did. “No, how do I start doing what YOU do?” Eve asks. Wick tells her she can still leave — she has the choice to reject a killer’s life. The sad subtext: He does not.
But while Wick wants out — always — Eve wants IN. Otherwise we wouldn’t have a movie. And so, her quest for vengeance takes her, clue by dangerous clue (and against the Director’s strict orders) to the snowy hamlet of Hallstatt. There, the fearsome Chancellor (Gabriel Byrne, duly chilly) leads a band of assassins — all of whom want to kill her. Oh, also: the Chancellor killed her dad.
And so Eve has to fight, using all the training and ingenuity she has amassed. One lesson she must draw on, from a trusted teacher: “Fight like a girl.”
In this case, as you can imagine, that’s not a derogatory phrase. What it means is to lean into your strengths — you won’t beat a man by brute force, the teacher has told her, but with smarts and inventiveness.
That means using ever more interesting weapons to kill an endless supply of people (it must be said, the cheers from moviegoers are, as ever, disconcerting.) And, by the end, getting pretty comfortable with a flamethrower.
“From the World of John Wick: Ballerina,” a Lionsgate release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association “for strong/bloody violence throughout, and language. “ Running time: 125 minutes. Two stars out of four.
