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Cleaner -- a review

In Cleaner Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) stars as Joanna “Joey” Locke, a window cleaner at a swanky London office building that serves as the headquarters for an energy company. Joey becomes late for work when she’s forced to take her autistic brother Michael (Matthew Tuck) to her job with her. Because of her lateness, her nimrod of a manager makes Joey work an hour late, well into the evening. Joey reluctantly keeps cleaning windows of bird splatter in the darkness, but eventually bird droppings wind up being the least of her problems.

A team of terrorists arrive at a party that’s being held at the office for the energy company’s share holders. Disguised as performers, the terrorists seize the energy company’s board members as hostages, while knocking everybody else out with gas. Joey, still working on the windows outside, sees all of this and promptly goes into action. Because, as the film has earlier established, Joey is a former British Army soldier, and she’s hell bent on protecting her vulnerable brother, Michael, regardless of whatever the threat might be.

Martin Campbell, who also helmed two of my favorite James Bond films, 1995’s Golden Eye, with Pierce Brosnan and 2006’s Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig (both films were each the debut of their lead actors as 007), directs Cleaner with a very sturdy and assured hand. This is a straight on action film that’s very well done, especially in the stunt department. But Campbell still leaves some room for character development. Joey, who is far from being perfect, had washed out of the British Army commando training corps for assaulting another commando trainee who thought she was coasting because she was a woman. Joey is a take-no-prisoners fighter, regardless of what the fight is, or the consequences, making her the perfect champion for her brother and the rest of the hostages.

Daisy Ridley, who is one of the best things about the flawed Star Wars sequels, is very good here as Joey. She easily carries the film on her capable shoulders. Ridley is charismatic enough of an actor to make the best with the material she’s given--regardless of the quality--such as what she did with her turn in Star Wars, by making the viewer keep their eyes on her Rey character. Ridley did that with just her affable screen presence alone, and she does the same thing here, this time working with a better, less messy story--thus enabling her to make Joey very sympathetic. And she also handles the rough and tumble stuff with plenty of flair, and is completely believable as an ex-soldier.

Cleaner also has a pretty cool plot twist with its villains, who start out as protectors of the enviornment who just want to get the truth out about the rampant corporate greed within the energy company. They wind up getting their non-lethal assault hijacked by a more fanatical faction within their ranks, who randomly kill people left and right. This ups the stakes, as well as the caliber of villain that Joey has to deal with. And she's more than capable. Granted, Cleaner may not be a masterpiece, but it’s still a vastly entertaining B-movie actioner that can be enjoyed for what it is: just a rousing good time. --SF

Cleaner is available on digital, streaming, and physical media.
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