The 2024 production of Chief of Station makes star Aaron Eckhart look tired of it all. The Bricklayer was an exercise in tedium. This film is just tiresome, even Eckhart seems to sense this.
The Story
Chief of Station Benjamin Malloy (Eckhart) loses his “spy” wife to a gas mains explosion. He soon learns that his double agent spouse was murdered. The chief has to return to the field to learn why. Malloy also needs to find out who has targeted him for removal.
The Main Cast
Aaron Eckhart as Malloy
Olga Kurylenko as Krystyna Kowerski
Alex Pettyfer is John Branca
Laëtitia Eïdo is Farrah Malloy
Nick Moran is Evgeny Khalikov
behind the scenes
Director Jesse V. Johnson puts everyone through their paces in a story written by George Mahaffey. The film looks good. All muted colours to match the mood of the film. Chief of Station is an angry film. Eckhart’s character does not hold any records in the one. His rage at the murder of his wife motivates his actions but everyone seems to be in a mood.
Malloy does have more unpleasant things done to him than anyone else. Folks actively trying to kill him. Torture. And his own team are setting him up to be taken out as the bad guy.
Eckhart as Malloy does not look aggrieved at this treatment. Instead he just looks tired of the whole thing.
IMDb have given Chief of Station a score of 4.7. Rotten Tomatoes dot com gave the film a critic score of 50% and an audience score of 72%. With my 5 star ranking system, the film does not fare that much better.
The Verdict
I give this one a paltry 2.5 stars. The message of Chief of Station appears to be that spies, like lawyers, are not to be trusted. This is streaming on Hulu at the moment.
A Surprise or two
There were a couple of nice surprises. It was nice to see Alex Pettyfer. I do not recall seeing him in anything since his “breakout” role as Alex Rider in the 2006 film Stormbreaker. Seeing Nick Moran as the Russian double agent was also a treat. I have been a fan since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Olga Kurylenko is always good value as a performer and it was also a pleasure to see her in the film.
Sadly, Chief of Station was not a good use of her talents.
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