Jim Caviezel Takes on a Corporate Villain in 'Ghost Soldier': Review

Jim Caviezel stars in "Ghost Soldier," a 90-minute action thriller directed by William Eubank, playing a former Special Forces officer who takes on a corporation burning out a rural Wyoming town. The film is rated PG-13 and is currently in theaters. Chris Papasadero wrote the script.

The premise is efficiently greedy. Caviezel's character, Fitz, lives in a semi-Brutalist house that a corporate concern called Brownstone wants to raze. The point isn't the real estate. Brownstone is after the water rights nearby, and the houses simply sit on top of the plan.

How does Brownstone acquire the town?

The film's villains, whom the source review likens to Snidely Whiplashes, start with legal means — of a sort. One family accepts a buyout, albeit at gunpoint, which rather stretches the definition of a negotiation. Another family, the Hernandezes, have their barn burned down. The Hernandezes are described as very nice, which in this genre is roughly equivalent to painting a target on the structure.

Fitz has been teaching the younger Hernandez horseback riding and marksmanship. He's qualified on both counts: before rural life, he was a Special Forces operator and an ammunition engineer. One of his inventions, in the review's description, is a small device resembling a highway turtleback (a low raised traffic barrier) that can blow a hole clean through a bad guy's torso. Charming household item.

Olivia Thirlby plays the sheriff. Viewers may remember her from "Juno" and "Snow Angels" in 2007 — and the review insists they should — or more recently from "Oppenheimer." Her character joins forces with Fitz once she concludes the antagonists are too ruthless to be brought down lawfully. That realization, in this genre, is a career pivot.

What happens when the Serbs arrive?

In the final third, the organizer of the villains, played by Shea Whigham, calls in Serb reinforcements. The review describes the arrivals as scores of snarly men with beards and shaved heads, noting that the town suddenly looks like a Halloween party where everyone dressed as the Tate brothers.

Fitz remains unbothered. "I only need three hours," he tells the sheriff. The review confirms — and flags that this is not a spoiler — that he is as good as his word. The satisfaction of watching Fitz knock the reinforcements down, briskly, is described as the movie's entire raison d'être.

The framing device is Shakespearean, loosely. "Brevity is the soul of wit," Polonius observes in "Hamlet," and the review notes that Shakespeare never lived to discover how useful the corollary is for action movies. At one hour and 30 minutes, "Ghost Soldier" takes the advice literally. The rating card says PG-13 for, in the review's phrasing, lots and lots and lots of violence.

For audiences who want a lean genre picture that delivers exactly what its premise promises and then gets out, that economy may be the whole sales pitch.