Film

To us, Jean-Claude Van Damme is the badass who can roundhouse-kick villains into the middle of next week; we rely on the Belgian superstar to provide some feet-of-fury flurries. But the martial-arts icon now wants to break hearts instead of jaws. He yearns to show viewers he could play Hamlet. Or, at the very least, credibly portray a washed-up, burned-out action hero named…Jean-Claude Van Damme.

That’s the metaconceit of JCVD, in which the actor plays himself as a sympathetically pathetic schlub. This Van Damme is broke, battling for custody of his daughter and reduced to begging for straight-to-DVD work. He also finds himself in a hostage situation, which creates a media frenzy. Rather than shattering the sternum of the lead crook (Soualem), the action hero defies real/reel expectations by acting like an everyman—albeit one who’s monumentally famous.Part career-resuscitation attempt and part serious cry for help, Mabrouk El Mechri’s Damme Day Afternoon rebranding effort is an incredibly intriguing failure. No one can blame the star for wanting to test his range, except that JCVD proves he was wise to emphasize physicality over versatility. Channeling emotional complexity was never his strength; it still isn’t. Yet there’s something undeniably fascinating (and revealing) about watching this in-joke trip over its own self-seriousness, especially once Van Damme fumbles through an earnest, tear-laden monologue about his life. So the mirror apparently does have two faces. Pity neither of them can convincingly deliver a line.