Carry-On is one of those solid thrillers that doesn’t want to give you the time to say ‘hey, wait a minute!’ before moving onto the next unlikely but tightly wound scenario. In other words, it’s good. It works. Just maybe don’t apply logic.
It stars Taron Egerton as a TSA agent who is blackmailed into letting a mysterious carry-on bag through his x-ray screening station. He has to do what the mysterious voice in his earbud says or his wife will be shot. What’s in the bag? Who is the mystery man? How will he bend probability and credibility to keep himself, his wife, and a planeful of people alive?
This film gets it right in the first ten minutes by introducing a married couple long enough for us to care about them. Egerton and Sofia Carson have an easy chemistry that wasn’t necessary for the film to work, but they sure make the thriller scenario a little more believable.
The film works best though as a simple exercise in tension. For a flick where Edgerton is asked to basically sit on a chair and watch bags as he’s tormented by the bad guy, its full of great suspense. It shouldn’t work… he sits on his ass and gives worried face for so long, I thought it was gonna break the film. But eventually Edgerton gets to stand and stretch his legs (and swing his fists too).
My favorite moment was when we get the big reveal of the bad guy. I should have recognized his voice since it’s so distinctive… but when they reveal it’s Jason Bateman, I had to grin. Mainly because I thought it’d be great if Edgerton shouted, “Holy shit! Jason Bateman broke bad!”… but no, he just plays a very casual, very confident, very smart bad guy who’s easy to both appreciate and hate.
Meanwhile, in an almost throw-away role, Danielle Deadwyler plays a detective on the case. She delivers a lot of screen presence and smarts, outthinking this overly elaborate plan. Plus she gets to be in a great front-seat fist-fights, a oner full of smashing into other cars and all sorts of crazy. Terrific scene, especially after all that “Edgerton sitting on his butt” for so long.
This is a Netflix joint and I have confidence it’ll convince the haters that Netflix doesn’t exclusively make bad movies. Its too good a movie to be tossed in with the Grey Men and the Red Ones and the Red Notices. It’s a fun, tension-filled thriller. Just don’t outthink it… because you will eventually say “Hey wait a minute!”
Score: 86