Critic wrangle: “JCVD.”

Genius? Overrated? Jean-Claude Van Damme plays "himself" in Mabrouk El Mechri's meta-drama "JCVD," caught in a bank robbery gone wrong in a trip back to Brussels to recuperate. It's a film I enjoyed the hell out of, though general critical word is mixed, or perhaps just more bemused. At New York, David Edelstein calls it "the most amazing piece of acting I've ever seen by a martial artist. But the film itself doesn't rise above the level of a good try." Scott Tobias at the Onion AV Club sums the film up as "a canny piece of autobiography that looks at the man behind the legend and the legend behind the man," but finds that once "the film's self-reflexive moments disappear... JCVD looks too much like the recent duds from which Van Damme hopes to extricate himself."...

Genius? Overrated? Jean-Claude Van Damme plays “himself” in Mabrouk El Mechri’s meta-drama “JCVD,” caught in a bank robbery gone wrong in a trip back to Brussels to recuperate. It’s a film I enjoyed the hell out of, though general critical word is mixed, or perhaps just more bemused. At New York, David Edelstein calls it “the most amazing piece of acting I’ve ever seen by a martial artist. But the film itself doesn’t rise above the level of a good try.” Scott Tobias at the Onion AV Club sums the film up as “a canny piece of autobiography that looks at the man behind the legend and the legend behind the man,” but finds that once “the film’s self-reflexive moments disappear… JCVD looks too much like the recent duds from which Van Damme hopes to extricate himself.”

At the New York Times, A.O. Scott shrugs that “JCVD” is an “odd, almost-clever film”: “Some of this is affecting, some of it tedious… Still, as a foray into self-mocking, self-aggrandizing career rehabilitation, ‘JCVD’ shows some promise and holds some interest.” J. Hoberman at the Village Voice, like Scott, wonders if the film is deliberately reminiscent of fellow Belgians the Dardenne brothers’ work. “What exactly is JCVD? Comedy? Confession? Confusion? No one will ever mistake these backstage shenanigans for Irma Vep. But as a self-regarding expression of masculine angst, it’s a Damme sight more fun than Synecdoche.” Snap! On that note, Lisa Schwarzbaum at Entertainment Weekly writes that “But the clever, stylish perception-teaser of a comic drama JCVD — a reality-twisting cousin to Being John Malkovich — showcases a Van Damme who’s sly like a fox about his own image.”

[Photo: "JCVD," Peace Arch, 2008]