Joseph Smith is a homeless man in London, and he is a problem. Hummingbird, Steven Knight’s directorial debut, wants you to feel his anger. It wants you to feel his fear. It wants you to feel his grief. What it doesn’t want you to feel is patience.
Jason Statham plays Joseph, a former Special Forces soldier who has become a broken man after years in Afghanistan. He is haunted by visions of dead bodies and hummingbirds, the drones that flew over the battlefield. He is also on the run from a military court-martial, which means the government is hunting him as much as the gang that beat him and killed his friend Isabel. The film opens with Joseph being chased through the streets, and it never quite lets up.
This is a movie about a man who decides to stop running. He breaks into a luxury apartment belonging to a photographer named Damon, who is away for eight months. Joseph assumes Damon’s identity, calling himself Joey Jones, and uses the flat to hunt down the men who hurt him. Along the way, he befriends a Polish nun named Sister Cristina, played by Agata Buzek, and finds work as a driver for a Chinese restaurant run by Mr. Choy, played by Benedict Wong. He also reconnects with Dawn, his ex-lover and the mother of his nine-year-old daughter, played by Vicky McClure.
The setup is simple. The execution is messy.
Trailer, via LionsgateFilmsUK.
Joseph’s Identity Change
Knight wrote the script and directs it himself, and the film is clearly his vision. That vision is a man who is willing to do terrible things to get justice. Joseph is not a hero in the traditional sense. He drinks too much. He fights too much. He lies too much. But the film asks you to root for him anyway, because he is fighting for something real.
The problem is that the film never fully commits to its own moral ground. Joseph’s violence is supposed to be a form of catharsis, a way for him to purge the demons of war. But the film also keeps showing him as a threat, a loose cannon who could blow everything apart. This tension is never resolved. The movie keeps pushing Joseph toward violence and then pulling back, leaving the audience unsure whether to cheer or wince.
Statham plays Joseph with a weary intensity that works in short bursts. His face is a map of pain, and Knight knows how to frame it. But the script keeps giving him reasons to fight that are either too thin or too obvious. A man beats a prostitute to death. A gang of thugs attacks him in an alley. A neighbor stares at him funny. None of these are the kind of provocations that justify the level of violence that follows.
The film is at its best when it is focused on Joseph’s internal struggle. The scenes with Cristina, where he talks about his nightmares and his guilt, are the quiet heart of the movie. Buzek plays Cristina with a warmth that anchors the chaos around her. Their friendship is genuine, and it is the one relationship in the film that feels earned.
But the film cannot stay quiet for long. It keeps moving toward the confrontation with the men who hurt Isabel, and when it gets there, the payoff is anticlimactic. The film spends so much time building up to this moment that when it arrives, it feels rushed. The villains are not particularly memorable, and their defeat feels less like justice and more like a shrug.
The Soup Kitchen and the Restaurant
The middle section of the film, where Joseph works at the Chinese restaurant and helps out at the soup kitchen, is the weakest stretch. It drags, and it repeats itself. Joseph buys food for the homeless. He gives Cristina gifts. He talks to Dawn. He worries about the government finding him. These scenes are meant to humanize him, but they end up making him feel like a man stuck in a loop.
The film also introduces a subplot involving a ballet performance that happens on the same day Damon returns from his trip. This is meant to be a ticking clock, but the clock ticks so slowly that it loses all urgency. The ballet is a metaphor for redemption, but the film never explains why. It just hangs there, a reminder that the world keeps turning even as Joseph tries to stop it.
Wong’s Mr. Choy is the closest thing the film has to a villain, and he is a decent foil for Statham. Wong plays him with a calm menace, a man who knows the rules and expects everyone else to follow them. Their scenes together are the best of the film, because they are the rare moments where Knight lets two characters talk to each other honestly.
The film also has a few supporting players who do not get enough to do. Youssef Kerkour plays Bouzanis, a thug who is part of the gang that hurt Joseph. Anthony Morris plays the Taxman, a minor figure who shows up briefly. Victoria Bewick plays Isabel, and her fate is left unexplained. Danny Webb plays Damon, and Sang Lui plays Tony. None of them are given the chance to matter.
A Broken Man’s Grief
The film’s central idea is that Joseph is a hummingbird, a small creature that can move fast and strike hard. It is a clever metaphor, and Knight uses it well. But the metaphor is abandoned halfway through, and the film becomes a standard revenge thriller. Joseph’s grief is real, but his methods are not.
The film also touches on the idea of redemption, which is ironic given that the American release title is Redemption. Joseph is constantly trying to find a way back, but the film is not sure what that way looks like. He helps the homeless. He gives money to Dawn. He prays with Cristina. But none of it seems to stick. The film suggests that he is a broken man who cannot be fixed, and that is a bleak message.
The film’s final act is a chase through London, with Joseph hunting down the men who hurt Isabel. It is tense, but it is also predictable. The film has spent so much time telling us that Joseph is a fighter that the final showdown feels inevitable. There is no surprise, no twist, no moment that makes the audience gasp. It is a conclusion that feels earned, but only in the most literal sense.
The film ends with Joseph walking away, still haunted, still drinking, still searching. It is a downbeat ending, and it is the right ending for this character. But it is also a dull ending, because the film has spent so much time telling us where Joseph is headed that the destination feels familiar.
The Numbers Behind the Film
- Title: Hummingbird (2013)
- Director: Steven Knight
- Writer: Steven Knight
- Runtime: 100 minutes
- Genres: Action, Thriller
- Tagline: “All roads don’t lead to salvation.”
A Rough Watch
Hummingbird is not a bad film. It has a strong lead performance, a few good scenes, and a solid premise. But it is a flawed film, one that fails to live up to its own ambitions. It is a revenge thriller dressed up as a character study, and the costume is too tight for the actor underneath.
The film is also marred by technical issues. The sound design is uneven, with dialogue sometimes disappearing under the score. The editing is choppy, with scenes that jump forward without warning. These are not fatal flaws, but they are distractions.
The film is at its worst when it is trying to be poetic. Knight is a writer, and he has a gift for language. But he is not a visual director, and the film suffers for it. The action sequences are competent, but they lack the weight of a man who has seen real violence. The film keeps promising a brutal reckoning, but it never delivers one.
The film’s biggest sin is that it never trusts its own protagonist. Joseph is a man who has lost everything, and the film keeps reminding us of that. But it also keeps punishing him, as if his grief is a weakness that needs to be corrected. The film wants Joseph to be a hero, but it keeps treating him like a monster.
The Verdict on Hummingbird
Hummingbird is a film that is easy to admire and hard to love. It is a flawed debut from a talented writer, and it deserves credit for taking risks. But those risks do not pay off consistently. The film is too messy, too repetitive, and too uncertain about what it wants to say. It is a movie about a man who is lost, but it is not a very good guide.
The film’s best moments are the quiet ones, the ones where Joseph sits with Cristina and talks about his nightmares. Those scenes are the reason to watch this film. The rest is a slog.
Hummingbird is a film that is worth seeing once, for the performances and the premise. But it is not a film that rewards repeat viewing. It is a film that leaves you feeling hollow, like you have just watched a man destroy himself without ever understanding why.
The film is a cautionary tale about revenge, but it is also a warning about storytelling. A good story does not need to be complicated. It needs to be honest. Hummingbird is not honest. It is a man’s grief, wrapped in violence, sold as a solution.
Hummingbird is a film that is worth seeing once, for the performances and the premise. But it is not a film that rewards repeat viewing. It is a film that leaves you feeling hollow, like you have just watched a man destroy himself without ever understanding why.
| Scene | Time |
|---|---|
| Joseph breaks into Damon’s apartment | Opening scene |
| Joseph befriends Sister Cristina | Early |
| Joseph works at the Chinese restaurant | Middle |
| Joseph confronts the gang that hurt him | Late |
| Joseph hunts down the men who hurt Isabel | Final act |
| The film’s ending | Closing scene |
Hummingbird is a film that is better in theory than in practice. It is a film that is smarter than its script. It is a film that is more interesting than its ending. It is a film that is worth remembering, but only as a lesson in what not to do.
The film’s tagline, “All roads don’t lead to salvation,” is a lie. The film proves that. Joseph finds a road to peace, but it is a road he walks alone, and the film cannot bear to let him walk it.
Hummingbird is a film that is worth seeing once, for the performances and the premise. But it is not a film that rewards repeat viewing. It is a film that leaves you feeling hollow, like you have just watched a man destroy himself without ever understanding why.
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