A Man Apart

Release Date: April 4, 2003
Studio: New Line Cinema
Director: F. Gary Gray
Screenwriter: Christian Gudegast, Paul Scheuring
Starring: Vin Diesel, Timothy Olyphant, Larenz Tate, Jacqueline Obradors, Gino Silva, Steve Eastin, Juan Fernadez, Jeff Kober, Mike Moroff, Emilio Rivera
Genre: Action, Thriller
MPAA Rating: R (for strong graphic violence, language, drug content and sexuality)
Official Website: AManApartmovie.com

Plot Summary: Vin Diesel stars as Agent Sean Vetter, a DEA operative fighting the drug wars along the US/Mexican border. After a major player from the Baja Cartel is imprisoned, a new mysterious figure known as Diablo wrests control over the entire operation. But when Vetter's wife is murdered in a botched hit, he and his partner (Tate) must join forces with the jailed Cartel to hunt down the dangerous and elusive new layer.

Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2003
- Take a pot shot but be warned.

 Vin Diesel may be stereotyped as an atypical action star in films such as XXX and Fast and the Furious, but A Man Apart proves he can play more than a macho sounding aggressor (Pitch Black, Fast and the Furious). His role as a DEA cop on a mission to bring down a drug lord from Mexico is accentuated by the niggling grief over his wife’s death and brings a dimension to Diesel’s performance that was lacking in his previous films.

 A Man Apart espouses a strong anti-drug feeling where Diesel (as Sean Vetter) and his DEA peers are the heroes in the war against the source of the problem, the Mexican troublemakers and their American accessories.

 Vetter has a dual motivation. He is securing justice and has a personal vendetta against the mob that killed his wife (Obradadors) in a late night raid of his home.

 It looks as if Vetter wants revenge when he loses control in pressure cooker situations, with lethal results: there is plenty of violence to keep action fans happy. In spite of these extremities, he is a grieving man and this is sensitively conveyed by Diesel’s handling of the nuances creating more than a monster bent towards vengeance.

 There are contrivances and pretences that round off this conventional action film – particularly the overt action that nevertheless reveal more about Vetter’s grief than his violence – but there is a substantial soundtrack interspersed with several well-staged meaningful conversational moments between adversaries in the piece.

 The relationship between Vetter and his wife is emphasised for effect but the resolution of Vetter’s grief is inconclusive, but indicates his strength as a hero in trying to bring down the perpetrators in spite of his pain. Despite the moral and natural contradictions of a man taking out the pain of his grief into justifiable violence in the name of the law, and despite the contradiction of being an anti-drug movie while revelling in violence (it has none of the complexity of Traffic), Diesel creates a convincing hurting hero nonetheless.