Raving, French anthropologist Jean-Claude Pommier (Pierce Brosnan) is carried into an emergency room where he manages to bite Dr. Eileen Flax (Lesley-Anne Down) before dying. Flax now has Pommier’s memories of the last week. She experiences his arrival in town with his wife, and his discovery of a vicious street gang that turns out to be made up of evil spirits.
Writer-director John McTiernan (who somehow managed to be responsible for both Die Hard and Rollerball 2002) creates a creepy movie of unknown evil all around us. With an abundance of atmosphere, Nomads presents a world where most people don’t notice the darkness in their midst, and that’s why they live long lives. Pommier, as an anthropologist, is too observant for his own good. He knows there is something odd about the leather-clad punks that vandalized his garage and they notice him too.
The concept is frightening as are occasional scenes, but atmosphere is not enough and Normads has little else. The real problem is Brosnen’s Pommier. I don’t know French, nor do I know what a real French accent is like, but I do know that whatever Brosnen’s using isn’t it. Pepé Le Pew sounds more like he comes from France.
Nomads asks us to care about Pommier, who brings all the trouble on himself. Yes, I know he is a fanatic anthropologist, but why is he just studying this gang? Wouldn’t any sane person call the police? Pommier instead follows the punks around town with all the skill of Inspector Clouseau, making all kinds of noises, and squatting down behind a car directly across the street from them. How could he not be seen? In one of the dumbest scenes in any film, Pommier hides, watching, as the punks beat a man to death. Then, when they lift the body to dump it in a garbage bin, Pommier leaps up and yells at them to stop. Is that exactly a good time to accost a gang of killers? Alone? If he was going to be mindlessly courageous, perhaps he should have gone into action before they killed the guy. I guess murder doesn’t bother him, but he’s not going to sit still for the unlicensed disposal of a body. I never had any sympathy for Pommier, instead repeating “what an idiot” almost every time he appeared on screen.
The film fares much better when Flax and the wife are the intended victims, but that is too little, too late.
Little is explained of the nature and motivations of the spirits. There are a few vague lines about Eskimo demons but not much else. They are some kind of ghost/spirit mix (several, if not all, of the gang members were people who died unpleasantly), that only harm those who notice them, but multiple people see their van and nothing more happens to them. It’s probably best that no information is given as I doubt it would make sense.
As if horrendous character development and an incoherent plot weren’t problematic enough, McTiernan adds in multiple, excruciatingly long, slow motion shots. It doesn’t raise the tension level; it put me to sleep.
With all its flaws, I’m not recommending you avoid Nomads; the basic idea has value. I just wish it had been used in a better film.
