Defendor

Sometimes a film can turn out to be nothing like you expected, and it can be a real challenge not to be completely disappointed, but rather try and keep an open mind about what you're watching instead of dismissing it just because it's not what you thought it would be. Because every now and then, you just need to let something surprise you. Defendor is just such a film.

At first glance, everything about this film just screams 'hilarious comedy' (trailers can be so misleading...). Perhaps it was the production company's intention to promote it as such, but it is nothing of the sort. But then again, if they were afraid a dramatic film about a sympathetic loser who thinks he's a superhero wasn't going to fly with the audience, they shouldn't have made it in the first place. But they did and here it is, and it's no surprise it wasn't a big box office success. That's bad promotion for you.

Nevertheless, Defendor certainly has its charm, mostly, if not completely, thanks to Woody Harrelson. I've personally never seen him fail, and there's something about the way he plays this character that just makes him instantly lovable. He plays a really sweet, 'intellectually challenged' man named Arthur Poppington who prefers to be addressed as his vigilante alter-ego Defendor (with an O!), blindly convinced of his duty to defend the needy. The fact that he has no real skills, hardly any physical strength and relies on marbles, angry wasps and lemon juice as his weapons of choice, never deter him in any way. In fact, they're exactly the ingredients that make up his identity. "Guns are for cowards!" is his credo.

But it's only fun and games until he assaults the owner of a dry cleaner's and is placed under court-ordered psychiatric supervision. Here his story slowly unravels and it becomes apparent that there's much more to this silly, troubled superhero wannabe than meets the eye. In conversations with his psychiatrist we learn of his friendship with a young hooker named Ka...