Here is a film from Poland that is proof that when a macho action hero has a canine sidekick, it makes him at least 64% more likable. The dog – a veteran of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – is called Tiny (the name is ironic, she’s huge). Her human is Maks (Eryk Lubos), a brooding loner who served 25 years in an elite special forces unit. Maks doesn’t say much and betrays less emotion than his dog. The pair of them live off-grid deep in the forest until, one wintry afternoon, news arrives that Maks’s father is dead.
Back in his home town, Maks is greeted like a returning hero. But after the funeral, before he can slip back into his lumberjack shirt, he disturbs a break-in at his father’s house. He instantly switches into fighting-machine mode, biffing the bad guys and breaking the nose of a local gangland thug’s son. So begins an exhausting barrage of violence, all of it far-fetched, as Maks relentlessly punches and shoots his way through enough men to fill a prison.
Diabel is a humourless, brooding film, with a plot about murky local business dealings that doesn’t make much sense. What is never in doubt is Maks’s skill at shooting, stabbing and slamming car doors shut on villains’ legs. Clearly Lubos is immersed in the role, but even with the emotional uplift of a doggy sidekick, he’s still too dour to root for. There are a few potentially interesting characters who don’t develop; even a love interest, gorgeous Kaja (Paulina Galazka), who marvels at the tattoo Maks has of his blood type: “You’re marked like an animal in a slaughterhouse.” Kaja is a bit thinly written, though, and you’ve got to worry about a film that invests more emotional life into canine characters than its female ones.
• Diabel is in UK and Irish cinemas from 3 January.
