'The Forger' is a strange film in a way. It feels like it's trying to cover every genre at once from thriller to action to comedy to drama. They're all there but the film never takes the time to focus on one of them in particular and I think that holds it back. At times John Travolta's character is shown to be a tough man capable of fighting 6 men at once with ease. And yet this fact is only really useful to that scene and not in any other way to the story. There's a dramatic element holding the plot together which is Travolta's son having cancer, but even with this being the driving force behind everything it still feels half done. Then there's the art heist which you would imagine to be the crux of the entire thing, but this too feels like a tacked on plot piece simply there to give the film a title and a hint of excitement to an otherwise potentially dull story. Despite the balance being off though it's quite a watchable movie.
Travolta is looking old and worn down it has to be said. He looked very far from a man capable of taking on 6 large men in a fight. His performance, at least dramatically, was quite good however as you would expect with him of course having a close association with the lose of his son five years previously. He did struggle a bit with the Boston accent, with it appearing and disappearing from scene to scene. The rest of the cast held things together but were nothing memorable. I think a few touch ups of the script structure and this could have been quite a sleeper hit. Even as it it's not all that bad of a watch.
