The One
dir. James Wong
Columbia Pictures
(Warning: Spoilers ahoy, although guessing the ending of this film is
about as hard as guessing if your shoes are on the correct feet.)
The One is a ridiculous trip into a world of paper-thin characters with a story
sculpted to fit a small number of key action sequences. It's a strange little parable of Lord-knows-what.
Everything you need to know is played out in the first five minutes. We live in a multiverse, not a
universe, and there are 120-something versions of every person. Jet Li as Yulaw goes
out to kill every other Jet Li as something-Law or Law-something so that he is the only Law
permutation left — The One. Now, of course, though there's a multiverse, there is finite amount
of energy or life force or what-have-you per Law, so less Laws, more energy per Law.
It's an intergalactic timeshare of sorts.
Authorized people — mostly cross-dimensional police — travel through this multiverse in
Star Trek-transporter fashion and nab people, like Yulaw, who break intergalactic rules. Now, because
Yulaw has killed all Law-men but one, Gabriel Law (conveniently, a police officer placed in our G.W. Bush-led universe)
and Yulaw share the power of, oh, 60 men each.
Yulaw needs to kill Gabriel Law to become The One — not some holistic demigod, but just the only
Law-man, which may cause reality-corrupting catastrophe, but could just be another murder.
It works conversely, too;
if Gabriel knocks off Yulaw, it's possible the fate of 120 worlds hang in the balance.
Ultimately, it's Jet Li versus himself, a patch every martial
arts movie star apparently needs to sew onto his sash.
The whole multiverse hook is only consulted for one good sight gag — Delroy Lindo, multiverse-hopping policeman,
is a gas station manager in our world. Alas, that's it. One conversation between Li and co-cop Jason
Statham will keep you on the edge of your seat — which Law-man is he talking with? — unless
you've already realized director James Wong is never going to use the which-Law-are-you factor for
anything intellectual.
Aside from Li's charisma, The One is devastatingly disappointing. Its special effects
alone aren't worth the price of admission, mostly because the best moves were tapped for the
trailer. The action sequences aren't the only element of the movie that defy modern physics;
the story manages to both suck and blow. In the end, neither
Law-man is done in, so there never is a One, and the passionate curiosity about its premise that
the movie has stoked in the audience is never indulged.
Most confusing is the fact that this project was butted up against David Mamet's Heist for Lindo.
Then again, he may be a sucker for the genre; Lindo and Li both appeared in Romeo Must Die. Statham,
on the other hand, won't be so lucky for roles and needs to find better opportunities than this if he
wants to segue successfully from Guy Ritchie flicks to Hollywood mainstream.
If I seem too harsh on the narrative aspects of The One and not pleased enough by the eye candy,
it is a direct result of being spoiled by The Matrix. N o t h i n g will likely m a t c h t h e W a c h o w s k i 's story-rich w o r l d f o r y e a r s , e s p e c i a l l y wit h t w o s e q u e l s o n t h e i r w a y .
A n y r e m o t e l y s i m i l a r venture w i l l f a i l b a s e d s o l e l y o n t h i s p r i n c i p l e ; if it doesn't,
its s u c c e s s c an p r o b a b l y be a t t r i b u t ed t o a c a p t i v e p u b l i c w a i t i n g f o r T h e M a t r i x R e l o a d e d
i n 2 0 0 3 a n d s e t t l i n g f o r a n y t h i n g c l o s e .
Come to think of it, The One is w i d e o p e n f o r a s e q u e l t h a t w o u l d f a l l s o m e w h e r e b e t w e e n
T h e M a t r i x R e l o a d e d a n d the series's third installment. W e c o u l d d o a l l t h i s
o v e r a g a i n .
—
Andy Stilp
(andy.stilp at gmail dot com)
