Film / Reviews
Review: Kills on Wheels
Kills on Wheels (15)
Hungary 2016 103 mins Subtitles Dir: Attila Till Cast: Szabolcs Thuróczy, Zoltán Fenyvesi, Ádám Fekete, Mónika Balsai, Lídia Danis, Dusán Vitanovics
Hopping into a wheelchair is an established route to Oscar glory for able-bodied actors, especially if exaggerated gurning is involved, this being about as far as self-congratulatory Tinseltown is prepared to go on the inclusivity front when it comes to the portrayal of disabled people on screen. Hungary’s official entry for this year’s Academy Awards does things rather differently, placing disabled, non-professional actors in two of its three key roles.
This gives writer/director Attila Till plenty of latitude in dodging both the deadening impact of political correctness and the modern obsession with avoiding anything that might conceivably agitate offence-takers. So instead of churning out another of those solemn, worthy and tiresomely inspirational dramas, he gives us a comic action-thriller rooted in characters with genuine emotional depth. But let’s not get carried away here. Kills on Wheels also has serious structural problems. To use a disgraceful disablist phrase, you’d have to be blind not to see the heavily foreshadowed twist coming. This causes the film to lurch into contrived last-reel feelgoodery that sits very uneasily alongside all the foregoing black comedy and bloodletting.
Szabolcs Thuróczy, whom you may recognise from that great Hungarian dog vengeance flick White God, is cast as embittered, greasy-haired former firefighter and ex-con Rupaszov, who now earns a crust as hitman for Serbian crimelord Rados (Vitanovics). Nothing unusual about that, except that Rupaszov has been paralysed from the waist down for the last three years. But the wily assassin turns this to his advantage. Who’s going to suspect the guy in a wheelchair of being a threat, after all? This pays rich dividends for both Rupaszov and the director in an impeccably tense set-piece sequence involving a hit in a crowded public square, which is right up there with the best Hollywood action-thrillers.
Trouble is that there are disadvantages to being a wheelchair using gun-for-hire, and these are broadly the same as being a Dalek. Stairs are a no-no and steep slopes can be a challenge. Speedy escapes from cops and wrong ‘uns alike are also tricky when you have to dismantle your wheelchair to fit it into the getaway car. So Rupaszov recruits two bored young disabled sidekicks from a rehabilitation facility. Zoli (Fenyvesi) is a handsome fella who’s in almost constant back pain and requires urgent spinal surgery to save his life. But he’s too proud to sign up for this because it will be paid for by his absent wealthy father, who abandoned the family. His horny chum and roommate Barba (Fekete) is a fellow comicbook enthusiast.
The film’s buddy comedy element is sweetly handled, with engaging performances from the two disabled cast members, though Barba is a tad under-written in comparison with his pal. Rupaszov also gets a humanising backstory in which the ex-girlfriend who abandoned him is about to marry another man. Surrounded by goons and attack dogs, Dusán Vitanovics exudes menace as the bad guy, and it’s especially entertaining to find that he’s actually Dr. Dusán Vitanovics – a part-time actor and full-time neurosurgeon whose doctorate was on Bob Marley’s brain tumour. There’s an impressive physicality to the action, in defiance of expectations about films with characters in wheelchairs, as well as many a sly swipe at reactions to disability. Cherish the scene during an undercover operation when a woman comes up to Zoli and attempts to force money on him. Shame, then, that the ending is such a wretched cop-out.
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