Defendor

The glut of superhero films over the last few decades has spawned a subgenre--the superhero-without-superpowers film. We've had Kick-Ass and Super (which I haven't seen yet) and then there's Defendor, a Canadian film that was released last year. I had never heard of it until searching Netflix for Kat Dennings films, and after seeing it it deserved a better fate than obscurity.

Woody Harrelson stars as a man who is politely called "slow." He works for a road crew in a crime-ridden city. At night he puts on a German war helmet, black clothing, paints on an eye mask, duct-tapes a "D" onto his chest, carries a trench club, and fights crime. We don't get an origin story, but his tale is revealed in flashback while being evaluated by a court-appointed psychiatrist.

Defendor is less about vigilantism than it is a clear-eyed look at mental illness. Harrelson's psychosis is palpable--he puts on the garb of a superhero, the kind he has worshipped since before he could read--to escape from his dreary life. For not having powers, or even being all that physically fit, he employs some clever tactics, such as throwing marbles or using wasps (he should have called himself Wasp-Man). But when he crosses a corrupt cop (Elias Koteas), which in turn gets him involved with a Serbian drug lord, he's in over his head.

Frankly, I was expecting a straight-to-DVD-quality film but I was both impressed and moved by Defendor. Dennings plays a hooker who Harrelson takes under his wing--that's a cliche, but Dennings invests more than the character is worth. Writer and director Peter Stebbings has also made a visually interesting film (Harrelson's helmet has a video camera attached, a problem in this day and age when he has trouble buying blank videocassettes).

Though Harrelson's character is the center of the film, vigilantism is a theme. Defendor says more about the subject than the overwrought Watchmen, and is a buried treasure that deserves to be seen by more people, particularly those who like to think about superheroes.