Good Review for 'The Chaperone'

In the bank robbery business, a "wheel man" is a skilled driver of getaway cars whose services are in great demand. An uneven but surprisingly pleasing and often entertaining low-budget indie-prod called The Chaperone is about an accidental wheel man named Ray Bradstone who lost his freedom, family and self-respect in a heist that landed him seven years in prison. Now he's out and determined to make amends, pay his debt to society and start fresh. Ray heads home to his well-kept brick house in the neatly manicured suburbs to catch up with his wife, who wants him to turn around and leave, and his embarrassed, ashamed and hostile daughter, who just wants him to drop dead. The movie is about the comical, cultural and criminal repercussions when Ray signs on as a chaperone on his daughter's junior-high classroom field trip to New Orleans. Here's the big surprise: Ray is played by 13-time world championship wrestling superstar Paul"Triple H" Levesque. And he ain't bad.

With his massive center-ring frame, Mr. Levesque takes up most of the screen's dimensions, but he has an appealing gentle-giant way with kids, and can say a dramatic line with unexpected tenderness.

Mr. Levesque has chosen a role with warmth, range and sensitivity, and even sings a few bars of the Fred Astaire classic "Pick Yourself Up." When the kids take over, the movie gets sloppy. But as long as the poker-faced "Triple H" is the centerpiece, The Chaperone is not without moments of genuine sweetness. Best of all, he is the most unpretentious and least flamboyant human juggernaut to ever hit the screen. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop, but better...More?

source: observer.com