‘There Are No Saints’ is an action thriller that follows Neto, a.k.a. the Jesuit, shortly after he is released from prison. Neto is on the road to retribution after his wife is murdered and his son kidnapped.
The film opens on Neto being released from prison, interspersed with flashbacks of the crime that put him there – the murder of a woman tied to a rival criminal gang. He meets with Carl, a confidante and friend who helps him meet with his estranged wife and son, Nadia an Julio. Unbeknownst to Neto, Nadia has remarried to Vincent, a rich and powerful man with ties to the criminal world.
After settling into a hotel, Neto visits with his old crime boss and is subsequently ambushed by Vincent’s men, leading to a chase and shoot-out where Nadia is killed and Julio taken captive. Tracking Vincent south of the border, Neto hires Inez, a strip club worker, to travel with him to Mexico and help get across the border. There the two infiltrate Vincent’s compound and uncover that Julio is with Señor Sans, a crime boss.
Neto and Inez track Sans and are kidnapped by his men. On their way to Sans’ hide-out Neto breaks free and travels to his compound, only to be re-captured and taken to Sans. It is revealed that it was Sans’ wife who Neto killed, scarring Sans’ boy in the process, as he watched his mother die. Sans drowns Julio in a well. Neto manages to kill Sans, but loses consciousness from his injuries. After he comes to, Neto leaves with Inez and Julio. The final scene of the film shows Neto at Julio’s grave, with Neto then kidnapping his old gang leader who sold him out.
‘There Are No Saints’ is a run-of-the-mill action thriller. To set the stage, the opening 15 minutes of the movie contain 3 expositional dumps – through a TV news report, internal monologue and Tim Roth’s character meeting with the protagonist after his release. Even though it’s a straight-forward premise, the film already feels tiresome, moving things swiftly along by telling, not showing. The movie also contains little to no surprises, as the main character is pushed along by events happening around him, rather than him making any decisions for himself. What follows is a total of 105 minutes of a paint-by-the-numbers story of revenge and predictable action/thriller beats.
Without any monumental or noteworthy narrative or character developments, the film also lacks in delivering any truly suspenseful or exciting moments. Of course, there are a number of action scenes, yet they are so choppy as to result in a confusing and muddled representation of every fight scene that is in the film. Seeing as how the film had been completed for some time before its 2022 release, perhaps the narrative and visual inconsistencies can be chalked up to multiple poor re-edits, rather than bad writing.
The main cast of the film consists of José María Yazpik as Neto, Shannyn Sossamon as Inez, Paz Vega as Nadia and Neal McDonough as Vincent. Yazpik serves well as the stoic main character, but offers little else by way any notable character development or revelation. Yazpik’s Neto is there to be moved along by the story rather than the other way around, allowing the actor little opportunity to deliver anything besides the strong silent type.
The film also boasts a number of recognisable names, yet these seem wasted as they all serve one-note beats in the story. Tim Roth literally appears in the film a few times to provide exposition, Neal McDonough appears as vengeful mustache-twirling villain, and Ron Pearlman, playing Señor Sans, only appears on screen for the last 15 minutes of the feature. The short time we get to spend with the aforementioned characters creates for a very impersonal feel to the film, not creating a strong and impactful reason to Neto’s journey of revenge.
‘There Are No Saints’ is an action film that at times seems to lean into gruesome exploitation cinema, yet does not fully commit, resulting in a middle of the road action flick. The confused story beats and one-dimensional characters add to a wholly unoriginal and predictable narrative, resulting in a bemusing and unexciting experience. Without anything new to say, ‘There Are No Saints’ becomes a chore to sit through with a disappointing resolution and a threat of a sequel.
Score: 1/4
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