Stone Cold Fox Review: Despite a Trio of Promising Cast Led by Kiernan Shipka, Krysten Ritter and Kiefer Sutherland, Sophie Tabet’s 80s-Set Debut Feature is Mostly a Letdown
At one point in Stone Cold Fox, Kiernan Shipka’s Fox is seen suspended in the air with a flying kick before breaking the fourth wall, where she’s upset. That’s right, and so do I, after watching this so-called ’80s-set revenge story. I was hoping for some retro fun, and the fact that Shipka, Krysten Ritter and Kiefer Sutherland headlining the cast seems like it’s worth checking out. Too bad director and co-writer Sophie Tabet, whose prior credits include several short films, doesn’t seem to have a firm grip on hitting the right notes of how an entertaining 80s-set thriller should be.
The story begins with Shipka’s Fox, who finally had enough with her abusive mother, and decides to run away from home, leaving her younger sister (Bluesy Burke’s Spooky) behind. Fox’s messed-up life on the streets seems to find a second chance after she meets Goldie (Krysten Ritter), a drug dealer who offers her a place to stay and makes her part of the family. They even become lovers, and for a while, everything’s great, except that Goldie tends to be erratic and prone to an abusive nature. It’s like history repeats itself, forcing Fox to leave her, but not empty-headed, as she decides to steal a duffel bag of cocaine.
The cocaine in question belongs to Sergeant Billy Breaker (Kiefer Sutherland), a corrupt cop who originally entrusts the stolen merchandise to Goldie. The part where Fox flees with the duffel bag takes a long while to get there, with the earlier stretch meanders around in search of finding the proper footing. But even when the eventual story comes along, the stakes remain low for most parts of the movie. I didn’t expect a movie revolving around a desperate protagonist like Fox on the run, with Breaker trying to track her down, can be unexpectedly mundane.
It doesn’t help when the movie tries to jazz up the story by adding a kidnapping plot of Fox’s younger sister, only to be diluted with a run-of-the-mill outcome. The ’80s setting is more like a mere window dressing here since Tabet fails to fully embrace the era, despite slapping in some fancy visuals like the showy character introductions and even includes a side character, who happens to be a huge action fan of Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies.
The retro-cool aesthetics barely matter when the story isn’t strong enough. It just lacks the much-needed spirit of the tone and style, making almost everything feel like a laborious journey of driving on flat tyres. It also looks to me that Tabet is trying to mix and match with different genres — crime thriller, drama, action and comedy — but what I have here is rather an inconsistent tonal mess.
At least the cast try their best, even when they are hampered by a weak screenplay. Kiernan Shipka’s lead role as a young girl embroiled in a mess is fun to watch, while adding a touch of sympathy to her down-on-her-luck character. Krysten Ritter, best known for her eponymous character in Jessica Jones, made quite an impression playing against type as the abusive and manipulative Goldie. While she isn’t entirely intimidating as I would expect for this kind of role, Ritter’s overall role is far from miscast.
Bringing in Kiefer Sutherland to play a shady cop is a nice touch, and not surprisingly, he owns the role in Stone Cold Fox, even going as far as stealing the show from Shipka and Ritter. The only one within the ensemble cast that doesn’t work for me is Jamie Chung, whose by-the-book and honest uniformed officer role as Corbett is largely sidelined here. It would do the movie an extra favour if only Tabet gave Chung a substantial character arc to justify her strict upholding of the law against a crooked cop like Breaker.
