Unconventional thriller ‘ ’71’ a tense, murky ‘inaction’ movie

It has all the trappings of a great action movie.

A soldier is trapped behind enemy lines, multiple parties launch a desperate manhunt — some to rescue him, some to kill him, some who may do either — and he has no idea how to get to safety or whom he can trust to get him there.

But, if anything, the engrossing “ ’71” is an inaction movie, as its passive protagonist is a veritable Blanche DuBois, forever depending on the kindness of strangers.

Directed by first-time feature helmer Yann Demange from a script by Gregory Burke, the period piece “ ’71” follows wet-behind-the-ears British Private Gary Hook (“Unbroken’s” Jack O’Connell) through the worst day of his young life.

We see a few glimpses of basic training and a few moments he spends with his little brother, who’s growing up in the same group home in which Hook was raised. Then it’s straight to Belfast, not Germany as his unit had been told, where they’re being deployed to assist in a “deteriorating security situation.”

That’s putting it mildly.

In 1971, Belfast was boiling over during a particularly violent period in the Troubles, the hilariously understated name for the three decades of sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants. Further complicating matters, the Catholics were bitterly split between the old guard Irish Republican Army and the younger streetfighting provisionals.

This is the atmosphere into which Hook and his colleagues are dropped.

“Don’t worry,” they’re told as they size up the crumbling school they’ll call home. “You’ll only be staying here till one of the Paddies shoots ya anyway.”

On their first day, they’re tasked with providing support to the area’s police force as it searches for guns in a Catholic neighborhood. Once on the street, the soldiers are immediately greeted by children pelting them with bags full of feces and rags soaked in urine. Burning cars form makeshift blockades. And, as they round a corner, housewives flock outside, banging trash can lids on the sidewalks to sound the alarm.

That street is soon filled with men and women, children and the elderly, pushing and testing the soldiers. Spitting leads to a punch, then the rocks and bricks come raining in. When one of the soldiers is knocked down and a boy steals his rifle, Hook is ordered to retrieve it. Then the troops are overrun and fall back, unknowingly leaving Hook behind to be chased through streets, alleys and abandoned buildings, with gunshots ringing out all around him.

Decades of movies, ranging from “Escape from New York” to “The Raid: Redemption” to even “Judgment Night” with Emilio Estevez and Cuba Gooding Jr., have conditioned audiences to expect a resourceful action hero to be forged from such trying circumstances. Instead, Hook behaves as many of us would: He’s scared witless and cowers in a bathroom.

Once he ventures out, he encounters a captivatingly foul-mouthed young boy (Corey McKinley) who’s delighted to find a real soldier and proceeds to treat Hook like a lost puppy. The child gives a face to the violence — “They killed my dad, IRA bastards,” he tells Hook. “They’re gonna kill us all.” — and he’s stunned to learn the outside world isn’t as consumed with religious labels. He knows Hook isn’t a Catholic name, asks his new friend if he’s Protestant and is gobsmacked by Hook’s answer: “I dunno.”

Their relationship accounts for what little joy exists in this tense, murky thriller that’s occasionally interrupted by bursts of unexpected, horrific violence.

As if to illustrate just how confusing Belfast was in 1971, Hook is stitched up by a former Army medic (Richard Dormer) and his daughter (Charlie Murphy), both of whom are Catholic yet unsure of what to do with him or which faction of the Republicans to trust.

They’re nearly as torn as the young college student (Barry Keoghan), who’s warned by the IRA to stay away from the provisionals, for whom he hides guns in the floor of his childhood bedroom, even though he doesn’t seem inclined to fight.

Then there are the renegade members of the undercover Military Reaction Force, who seemingly work for and against every side.

O’Connell is terrific in a performance that’s largely silent and mostly reactionary. The emotions he conveys are deeply human in a landscape that seems anything but.

The unconventional thriller is nearly as full of disillusionment as it is tension and suspense. There are no heroes. There are precious few trying to do good.

As a result, “ ’71” is a movie that likely will leave you as discombobulated as its hero.

Even if he isn’t much of a hero at all.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @life_onthecouch.