I was surprised to find that the director of the second film in the BMW series The Hire was Ang Lee, so imagine how I felt when this one was directed by Kar Wai Wong, he of In the Mood for Love and other films where car chases do not feature particularly highly; to say the least I was curious as to what he would deliver here. The plot this time is a tailing job – a movie star's agent hires the Driver to follow the star's wife to confirm she isn't cheating on him; a simple job but then perhaps not.
What Wong delivers is actually a really nice short film that delivers substance in a way the previous two had not while also giving the guys paying for the film plenty of slick shots of their cars in motion. The film opens with some shots with an artistic slant and it continues as such throughout. In the previous films the Driver had been mostly silent however here his narration is key and it is pretty well written to be about the art of The Follow while also filling in the story as we go along. OK, it is a flaw of the film that his technique looks awful (he seems far too obvious to me!) but the narration and the style help cover this minor quibble.
The film has a great style to it and Wong really does a good job with the following sequences. Unable to work with the thrill of a chase, he instead captures moments of slick beauty as the two cars move around cities and landscapes – it had a real flow to it and looked beautiful; the shots after stopping at the bank were particularly memorable. The cast do well here, Owen is better with some character to talk about while the quality of Whittaker, Rourke and the looks of Lima all help the feel of the film as slick and polished.
The Follow may lack the action chase sequence of the other films thus far, but it produces something I enjoyed much more as a short film (as opposed to an action clip). The story is good, the narration adds a layer to the film and yet Wong still manages to make the central product look good. Very good little short that rises above its commercial heart.
