Hummingbird (film)

Hummingbird
UK theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Knight
Produced by	Guy Heeley Paul Webster
Written by	Steven Knight
Starring	Jason Statham Agata Buzek Christian Brassington Vicky McClure Benedict Wong Ger Ryan
Music by	Dario Marianelli
Cinematography	Chris Menges
Edited by	Valerio Bonelli
Production company	IM Global Shoebox Films
Distributed by	Lionsgate (US) Roadside Attractions (US)
Release dates	28 June 2013 (2013-06-28)
Running time	100 minutes[1]
Country	United Kingdom[2]
Language	English
Budget	$20 million[3]
Box office	$12,671,109[4]

Hummingbird (released as Redemption in the U.S.) is a 2013 British action drama film written and directed by Steven Knight and starring Jason Statham.^[5]

Plot

Joseph Smith (Jason Statham) is an ex-Special Forces veteran who went AWOL from his unit in Afghanistan, and now lives as a homeless drunk in London. While fleeing thugs, he breaks into an apartment and discovers the owner, Damon, is travelling for months. He begins to assume the life of the owner, calling himself Joey Jones, and spends his time looking for Isabel (Victoria Bewick), from whom he was separated in the streets. He finds a credit card in the apartment mail, and starts to improve himself.

Joey is friends with Cristina (Agata Buzek), a nun who runs the soup kitchen, and she helps him with medicine and messages to Isabel. Joey gets a job in a Chinese restaurant kitchen, and when the management call upon him to help deal with some rowdy diners, his fighting ability brings him to the attention of Mr Choy (Benedict Wong), a senior organised crime manager, who hires him as a driver and enforcer, collecting extortion payments and delivering drugs. He saves some of the money he receives and begins to do charitable work, ordering pizzas for the soup kitchen and buying gifts for Cristina. The homeless begin calling him "Crazy Joe". He finds Dawn (Vicky McClure), his ex and mother of his young daughter, and starts giving her money. He tells the neighbours that he is Damon's boyfriend.

Joey invites Cristina to dinner at a barbecue in the street behind the Chinese restaurant. Cristina attends, but only to show him a police photo of Isabel, who had been beaten to death and thrown in the river. Joey is enraged, but Cristina is able to calm him, and encourages him to start an honest life. He finds the men who chased him away from Isabel and beats them, interrogating them about Isabel's murder, acquiring a rough description of her killer. Joey meets Cristina at an art gallery, to give her this information to pass on to the police. She gets a bit tipsy, and they kiss. She tells him about a ballet ticket she has for the same date as when Damon is due to return - 1 October.

The police learn of Joey's activities, and begin questioning Cristina. Joey finds her later, and they share life stories. As a child, she was sexually abused by her gymnastics instructor in Warsaw, and eventually killed him. Being too young for prison, she was instead sent to a convent. Cristina is ashamed of her relationship with Joey, and asks her mother superior (Ger Ryan) to be transferred to another mission in Sierra Leone. Joey continues his search for Isabel's killer, trading services with Mr. Choy's boss. He is given the keys to a truck with boxes containing refugees/slaves to be delivered.

Meanwhile, Isabel's killer, Max Forrester (Christian Brassington) is savagely beating another hooker. A neighbor finds Max's invitation to a rooftop cocktail party, and the invitation finds its way to Joey, who had put the word out that he wanted information of someone fitting Max's description. The party is on October 1.

Joey meets Cristina on 1 October. He asks her to take photos of him for his daughter, and he hints that he won't be the same for long. She tells him that she is leaving for Africa, and that she wants to be with him before she leaves. The two consummate their relationship as the apartment's owner returns, and they escape through the back. She invites him to the ballet. He delivers the photos and a bag full of cash to his ex-wife and daughter.

Cristina waits for Joey, but he goes to the cocktail party instead. He finds Max Forrester and throws him from the roof in front of the guests, killing him. Cristina leaves the ballet, still looking for Joey. She finds him drunk and sleeping on the curb. He reveals that he is wanted by the military police for a random revenge killing he carried out in Afghanistan in payback for the deaths of five of his men. He explains to her that when he is sober and functional, he hurts people, because that is what his training turned him into. Joey tells her that he is going to return to life as a wandering drunk because that way he doesn't hurt anybody, but not before he gives the police information on Mr Choy's human trafficking operation.

The next day, Cristina is leaving for Africa, and receives a note from Joey. He has paid his debts with everyone and is homeless again. As he walks the streets, the police are closing in, and he is hunted by a surveillance drone similar to the one that witnessed his crimes in Afghanistan.

Cast

• Jason Statham as Joseph Smith/Joey Jones, an ex-Royal Marine
• Agata Buzek as Sister Cristina, a young nun
• Christian Brassington as Max Forrester, a murderous city boy
• Vicky McClure as Dawn
• Benedict Wong as Mr Choy
• Ger Ryan as Mother Superior
• Victoria Bewick as Isabel
• Sang Lui as Tony
• Lillie Buttery as young Cristina

Production

Hummingbird was almost entirely filmed at night. Filming sites included popular streets for homeless people, some of whom were involved in the shoot. Statham stated that before filming started some research was undertaken into the mental health issues of his character, including ex-servicemen asked about their experiences.

Release

Hummingbird was released in the United Kingdom, the United States (as Redemption) and France (as Crazy Joe) on 28 June 2013.^[6]

Reception

Based on 48 reviews Rotten Tomatoes gives a score of 48%, with the site's consensus being "While it certainly has more on its mind than the average Jason Statham action thriller, Redemption doesn't quite capitalize on its premise -- or on its star's strong, committed performance."^[7]

See also

• List of films featuring drones

References

External links

• Official website
• Hummingbird (Redemption) at the Internet Movie Database
• Redemption at Box Office Mojo
• Redemption at Metacritic