As fans of highbrow cult TV (Deadwood), schlock but addictive TV (Lovejoy), and connoisseurs of great character portrayal will attest, Ian McShane is a superb actor, one of his generation’s finest. Now 81 but a silver fox who moves with feline fluidity, and in possession of a fortune-generating rumble of a voice, he’s seldom out of work for long. But it’s rare to see him cast in a leading role; he’s usually the heavy, the antagonist, the sly puppeteer who’s been pulling the strings all along.
American Star is therefore a bit of a treat because it gives McShane fans the maximum amount of McShane time, casting him as yet another heavy but one with something of a soul. (He takes a producer credit here, so maybe that’s what it took to put him in the centre of the story for a change.)
McShane plays Wilson, a professional hitman and veteran of the Falklands war, who arrives on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canaries to kill someone. But at the target’s elegant midcentury modern house in the middle of one of the island’s many lunar stretches of nowhere, the target isn’t home. Instead, an attractive young French woman (Nora Arnezeder) pulls up to use the swimming pool, and later Wilson runs into her where she’s working – in a bar where he learns her name is Gloria.
Thinking he’s mulling buying a house on the island, Gloria takes Wilson to see some sights, such as a famous wrecked ship named the American Star that’s an obvious metaphor for faded glory, and introduces him to her mother (Fanny Ardant, no less) who immediately spots danger in him.
Although the script is a bit formulaic and fairly predictable, the treat here is seeing McShane do what he does best, which is to project a lively mind ticking away under the placid surface of a snake-like visage. We’ve seen him play killers, but he has fantastic chemistry with his co-stars: as well as Arnezeder these include Adam Nagaitis, who is terrific as his jovial handler from the UK who shows up menacingly halfway through the story, and Oscar Coleman (Bridgerton), a savvy 10-year-old with whom Wilson forms an unlikely friendship. Meanwhile, director Gonzalo López-Gallego creates a strong frame around the characters in both visual and narrative terms, while a lovely score credited to Remate, mixed with well-chosen soundtrack cuts, creates a limpid poignancy.
• American Star is in UK cinemas and on digital platforms from 23 February.
