Daniel Ketchelos— Staff Writer 

Nobody follows the story of an average man, Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) as he reembraces his former violent lifestyle. When a confrontation with the son of a Russian drug lord goes haywire, Hutch must embrace his violent past to protect his family.  

Nobody, directed by Ilya Naishuller, had the potential to be an excellent film, but there were many parts that fell flat. An overreliance on violent action scenes, a lack of character development, and unrealistic action caused this film to be deficient in substance. 

The opening—an excellent montage showcasing Hutch’s average lifestyle—is the best part of this film. Showing Hutch’s constant cycle of forgetting the trash pickup, swiping his metro card, entering numbers into an excel file at work, and going to bed all for it to repeat the next day worked well to develop his character. 

Hutch’s routine caused his marriage to fall apart and his life to feel inadequate, but it is soon challenged when a duo of home intruders breaks in during the night. When faced with the choice to protect his family or let the intruders go, Hutch sides with deescalating the situation, causing his relationship with his family to spiral even further. 

Hutch stands by his decision until his daughter’s cat bracelet goes missing. His response is to revert to violent tendencies when hunting down the home intruders. Hutch’s character is filled with an internal lust for violence, which becomes apparent throughout these scenes. 

While Hutch has a decent amount of characterization, many of the supporting characters only exist to propel the plot for Hutch. They were not dynamic, so it proved difficult to be concerned for them during dangerous situations. 

The lack of realistic action and movement throughout this film also caused it to fall short. In many scenes, Hutch would be fighting solo against 20-30 members of the Russian mafia and manage to kill everyone without suffering any damages. In an intense car chase, Hutch’s classic white muscle car becomes showered with bullets, while he manages to evade without a single scratch. Hutch is untouchable.

Despite the lack of realism and character development, Bob Odenkirk’s performance felt natural and was enjoyable to watch. His performance as Hutch brought both an “average” side to the character and a side filled with suppressed violence. Odenkirk has performed dark and gritty characters in the past, such as Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. It felt  natural to integrate his acting style into Nobody.

The most glaring mistake in this film is the overreliance on violence. Many of the intense scenes are dragged out too long and do not contribute much to the overall storyline. It felt as if this film portrayed violence for the sake of violence, which caused dissatisfaction with the overall film. If more time had been spent on developing the plot and characters, it would have been more successful. 

Overall, there are not many memorable moments in the film. Many of the characters are forgettable and the plot is not satisfying. The only real reason to see this is if you are a fan of Bob Odenkirk’s acting, otherwise it is another predictable action movie.