Stratton

John Stratton, the hero of Simon West's actioner, is introduced as a protocol-shunting Special Boat Service operative with a history of soured relationships. In the botched opening raid on an Iranian laboratory harboring biochemical weapons, Stratton's partner Marty (Tyler Hoechlin), clarified in flashbacks to be a new father, gets gunned down; in the aftermath, the surviving serviceman returns home to a breakup note ("IT'S OVER DON'T EVER CALL ME AGAIN!") and a drinking session with an old-timer (Derek Jacobi) who later reveals Stratton to have been orphaned at a young age. But Dominic Cooper, requisitely bearded, plays Stratton merely as a mildly sullen professional who goes about his business; there's little surface indication of the hurt and the loneliness that must be driving this man at each step.

Stratton has been adapted for the screen by ex–SBS soldier Duncan Falconer, who has written a number of Stratton novels based on his experiences; instead of reserving its pathos-producing flashbacks for the quickly dispatched partner, whose arc barely registers, the movie might have benefitted from showing glimpses of the adolescent Stratton, who is said to have fallen in love with the water at an impressionable age. The rest of the characters are equally unvivid, serving only to advance the vague plot through chunky reams of dialogue. The average punch line runs something like this: After Stratton meets his deferential replacement sidekick (Austin Stowell), he muses: "You can cut the 'sir.' Everyone calls me Stratton." The steely confidence with which Cooper delivers the instruction would go over much better in a movie whose pulpy heft extended beyond the indication of a surname.