Carry On

Review

By Colton Gomez | 12/21/24 | 7:28 P.M. Mountain Time

Thriller, Action | Rated PG-13 | 1 hr 57 min | "Carry On" Release Date: December 13, 2024

Taron Egerton as Ethan Kopek ©Netflix

This is an action movie fit for the holiday season. It matches the anxiety, dread, and last-second saves we often find ourselves victim to. In fact, it might help to imagine yourself as a TSA agent on a mission to delude yourself just enough so you can get your job done, too.

“Carry On” is about TSA agent Ethan Kopek (Taron Egerton, “Rocketman”) “waking up” to life after he learns he will be having a baby with his girlfriend Nora (Sofia Carson). Now wanting a promotion, he’s tried at the bag scanners on the busiest day of the year, Christmas Eve. Navigating professional life amongst his friends and coworkers, he is coerced by a strange traveler (Jason Bateman) to let one specific bag clear the machine and Nora will get to live. The price for Nora’s life: 250 people on a plane that will meet their fate in the sky if the bag clears.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra is indeed gifted in crafting sequences that elevate the heart rate and make your palms sweat (mine certainly did). He very clearly establishes the geographic space of the airport and how they transition into one another. However, his gift for action trades off with room for improvement in dialogue and exposition-heavy sequences. The first ten minutes feel completely different from the rest of the film and were definitely the longest.

Scriptwriter T.J. Fixman is partially to blame for some clunky expository dialogue, especially in the setup. It is during the setup that we meet Nora who feels so unlike a regular person due to the way she talks and what she talks about. She never mentions any real wants of her own, rather, she just wants Ethan to be happy. All of her focus is on Ethan’s life. She loves her job (at the airport?), she loves her man fiercely, she loves kids and is great with them, and is of course packaged in a movie star’s looks. She has no faults of her own. She is the perfect person and perfect partner, which makes me dislike her. I sense machinery or deception.

Egerton performs an American accent in this film similarly to Tom Holland’s, in that he pitches up, which just calls attention to it even more. He performs his role adequately here, note that nothing special is required. They could’ve hired an actor who carries less screen presence than Egerton and it would have come out similarly. This is not a complex character and is not a suitable acting challenge for Egerton, who can deliver more. Bateman also performs adequately, but he too, I think, is capable of delivering more. He leans on his quiet, puncturing timbre for most of the film and it works because his voice is uniquely captivating. And I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if he was simultaneously working on another project (that, or he took a pay cut, noticing he has third billing on the poster).

I’d be interested to see what change would occur if the music were swapped for something tamer, more fitting. Lorne Balfe, the composer behind the latest “Mission: Impossible” movies, lends his talents to this film. He apparently lent his unused “Mission” tracks to supplement this film because it feels straight out of “Fallout” or “Dead Reckoning.” But this isn’t “Mission: Impossible.” We stay in one state the whole time. The plane takes off briefly but doesn’t get far. The music here doesn’t fit Collet-Serra’s movie and I found it distracting. The music for those movies is complex because there is a more complex plot involving multiple people, places, ideas, and so all of their motifs are thrown into the mix together, which Balfe expertly does there. Here, we have nothing to tie those motifs to, so it sounds out of place. This is a simple movie with a moral quandary in almost entirely one location. The music needn’t be that complicated.

Many of the pivots in the plot will be hit or miss. There is abundant stupidity on the part of the villains, obligatory but uninventive complications between characters, some interesting tactics, some interesting reversals, and ultimately they make the movie work. But is customs really the best way to get this dangerous package onto the plane? Can’t you sneak it in through employees or shop deliveries in parts and assemble it behind customs or even on the plane? Sure, take the path of most resistance.

This is not a movie to put on casually in the background (or if you do, at least sit down and watch the first 35 minutes or so). It’s fun, entertaining, frustrating at times, but ultimately is one for the holiday season that excites and eventually warms the heart. It’s not clever in its heartwarming ways, but it is effective.

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Review by Colton Gomez

Colton Gomez earned his BA in Film Studies from Weber State University. He owns and operates ColtonGomez.com. Here, he covers new releases in theaters and on streaming. For short versions of his reviews, check out his LetterBoxd https://letterboxd.com/ColtonGomez/.

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Summary

Thriller, Action

Rated PG-13

1 hr 57 min

"Carry On" Release Date: December 13, 2024