Bob Odenkirk, best known for playing a gutter lawyer in
Better Call Saul, is not the first name that springs to mind to claim the aggrieved everyman action slot recently vacated by Liam Neeson. But from the opening shot â battered face cross-hatched with scratches, shackled hands effortlessly snapping open a Zippo lighter â the question is not the casting, but what took Hollywood so long to weaponise the ineffable coolness of Odenkirk.
He plays Hutch Mansell, a sad sack number-cruncher at his father-in-lawâs factory and husband adrift from his distant wife (Connie Nielsen). Snappy editing gives a flick-book summary of the daily disappointments of Hutchâs life and Russian director Ilya Naishuller combines a showily kinetic verve with a crackle of wry humour.
Bob Odenkirk - who is best known for playing lawyer Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul - is not an actor you would expect to lead a John Wick-style action-thriller, but that's the whole point. He portrays Hutch Mansell, a seemingly ordinary man with a wife, Rebecca (Connie Nielsen), two kids, an unremarkable 9-5 job, and he seems to be moving through his monotonous life on autopilot. One day, he steps in when a young woman starts.