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It’s weird because the fight scenes that are quick-like the first one with the bikers, when Dalton disarms a man by making him unable to shoot, have an immediacy that works. Oh, the over-crafted noises are there, but it’s all so obviously created in a CGI lab. This is a movie in which you need to feel the heat of the Florida Keys, the impact of a punch, the thud of a body hitting the floor. More damaging than underwritten character dynamics is the overall tone of “Road House,” which needed to be far more tactile to be effective. In the ‘80s movies that “Road House” so desperately wants to be, there’d be actual passion between Dalton and Ellie instead of the tentative stuff that unfolds here more out of narrative necessity. It’s understandable that Dalton is hesitant to be happy again given the trauma that’s revealed about his past, but the dynamic between him and Ellie is one of several in this film that feels uncertain of its own purpose.
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Obviously, Ellie will be the love interest for Dalton, but the film takes forever to get there and then backs away from their relationship almost immediately, turning elements of Ellie’s life into plot twists. They also set Dalton’s character as the kind of guy who drives his enemies to the hospital after he beats them up.Īt said hospital, Dalton meets a doctor named Ellie ( Daniela Melchior), who challenges his alleged altruism-after all, he just clogged up her ER with a bunch of idiots who wouldn’t be there if he wasn’t such a tough guy in the first place. Dalton comes in and takes care of Ben’s lackies in a series of scenes that are pretty well-choreographed and conceived. A real estate power player named Ben Brandt ( Billy Magnussen), who inherited an empire from a criminal father, is trying to get Frankie to shut the operation down. It turns out there’s a lot more to the violence in Frankie’s bar than the local drunks. Of course, “Road House” isn’t just about a bouncer at a bar in the Florida Keys. Her establishment has been threatened by local, motorcycle-riding tough guys for weeks and she can barely stay open. (And credit to Gyllenhaal and his physical trainers for making him entirely believable as a former UFC middleweight.) After a fight that gets canceled before it starts, Dalton is approached by a woman named Frankie ( Jessica Williams), who owns a roadhouse in Glass Key, Florida that’s named, of course, Road House. We don’t know how, but we know he’s so famous and so physically imposing that he scares combatants (including Post Malone) out of a fight club ring before they even throw a punch.
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When “Road House” opens, Elwood Dalton (Gyllenhaal) has fallen from grace.