“Wolfs”, which was released on Apple TV+ in a few days ago, works best whenever it simply focuses on whatever is exchanged between its two charismatic star actors. Having actually worked together more once in several notable films, they constantly click well with each other with considerable chemistry, and that is why it is rather disappointing to see that their good efforts are not supported well by the movie itself.

George Clooney, who still can be engaging even though his acting career has been relatively less prominent during last several years, plays an unnamed professional fixer who is called by a very well-known public figure played by Amy Ryan at the beginning of the story. Ryan’s character happens to have a very serious trouble while having a little naughty fun with some younger man in the penthouse suite of an expensive hotel located in the middle of New York City, and she desperately wants Clooney’s fixer character to sweep up all those incriminating things in the penthouse suite including the body of that young man, who looks dead due to a very unfortunate accident. 

It seems at first that things will be quickly handled within a fairly short time, but, of course, there comes a trouble via the unexpected appearance of another professional fixer, who is played by Brad Pitt. Both of these two professional fixers are naturally quite perplexed by this weird situation, but they have no choice but to work together as instructed by whoever hires Pitt’s fixer character, and Ryan’s character soon steps out of the ongoing situation because she now has to cover up her own trace as swiftly as possible.  

As they work together for a while, our two fixer characters frequently clash with each other in one way or another, and that is the main source of amusement for us during the first act of the film. Pitt and Clooney, who appeared together in not only Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy but also the Coen Brothers’ “Burn After Reading” (2008), are effortless as their characters frequently bicker with each other for handling their joint assignment, and Clooney’s weary appearance, which may take you back to his effective low-key performance in Anton Corbijn’s “The American” (2010), is complemented well by Pitt’s casually sardonic attitude.

While it could actually be developed into a standard two-hander between its two lead actors, the movie subsequently takes a left turn in the middle act instead as adding several additional characters into the story. For example, that lad is later revealed to be involved with a serious case of drug business, and that surely leads to more things to be handled by our two fixer characters. They eventually go to someone who may give them some help, and we get a bit amused as they are reminded again that they are not so different from each other in many aspects. Both of them firmly believe that a person of their criminal profession must work and live alone just like a lone wolf, but, what do you know, they only come to find more of common things between them even though they are reluctant to admit that to each other. 

As these two guys keep conflicting with each other, their situation keeps getting more and more complicated. Due to several packs of drug supposed to be delivered by that lad, our two fixer characters come to get involved with more than one criminal organizations in the town. At one point, they must enter a big party held by the boss of one of these criminal organizations, and they have to be quite careful because, well, the boss happens to know both of them.

While its two main characters bounce from one narrative point from another, the movie provides several competent sequences including the one where they chase after a certain substantial character. As shown from his breakthrough independent film “Cop Car” (2015) as well as the three Spider-Man movies including “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), director/co-producer/writer John Watts knows how to shoot action scenes, and he skillfully dials up and down the level of tension and humor during that impressive chase sequence.

However, Watt’s screenplay stumbles more than once in case of character development. Its two main characters’ relationship arc along the story is pretty obvious from the beginning, and they remain to be rather bland archetypes even though Clooney and Pitt try their best for filling their respective roles. Around the end of the story, the movie tries a few plot turns for surprise, but we already saw them coming from the distance, and the final scene, which is clearly influenced by that iconic last scene of George Roy Hill’s classic film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), feels perfunctory instead of being dramatically impactful.

Around Pitt and Clooney, the movie place several notable performers, but most of them are under-utilized on the whole. While Amy Ryan simply exits even before the first act is over, Austin Abrams, Poorna Jagannathan. Zlatko Burić, and Richard Kind manage to have each own moment, and Frances McDormand. who incidentally appeared along with Clooney and Pitt in “Burn After Reading”, provides a brief voice performance early in the film.

Overall, “Wolfs” is not a total waste of time mainly thanks to the solid joint efforts from its two lead performers, but it is often hampered by thin narrative and superficial characterization. Although I was mildly entertained during my viewing, it is already getting faded out in my mine, and I do not bother at all as being ready to move onto what I am soon going to watch next.