JCVD

Aroview: ‘The Muscles from Brussels’ holds a mirror up to himself in this sly, semi-autobiographical take on the once-famous action star’s fall from grace.

Fashioning a story of desperation around Van Damme’s own rudderless career, dir. El Mechri’s concept for the film eventually arrives at a hostage drama, in which the luckless Jean-Claude finds himself acting the hero in a standoff between police and perpetators. No more satisfying than the actor’s straight-to-video works though, viewers (and misty-eyed fans) will gain so much more from the clever delivery of self-deprecating and referential asides, notably a six-minute monologue by Van Damme, in which he breaks the fourth wall to reflect somberly on his failed marriages, drug addiction, and movie nadirs.