Defendor

The directorial debut of Canadian actor Peter Stebbings, Defendor casts Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington – a dim-witted construction worker who doubles as crime-fighting superhero Defendor at night. Though the cops think that he’s a joke and his best friend urges him to stop, Arthur/Defendor doggedly pursues the drug dealer he believes responsible for his mother’s death – with the arrival of a scrappy prostitute (Kat Dennings’ Kat) ultimately complicating matters. Stebbings has infused Defendor with a low key, almost low-rent sensibility that pervades its every aspect, with the movie’s admittedly light storyline complementing the first-time filmmaker’s laid-back aspirations. Harrelson’s expectedly engaging performance undoubtedly goes a long way towards initially sustaining the viewer’s interest, yet there does reach a point at which the increasingly languid pace triggers the film’s transformation from watchable comedy to hopelessly inconsequential piece of work. Stebbings’ difficulties in straddling the line between do-it-yourself superhero caper and uneventful character study inevitably renders Defendor‘s more overtly positive attributes moot, and it certainly goes without saying that the rousing finale doesn’t quite possess the impact that the director was clearly shooting for.

** out of ****