'Wanted' (R)(out of four)

Audiences will come to "Wanted" for Angelina Jolie but will walk out talking about James McAvoy.

Up until this weekend, McAvoy has mostly played the pretty boy of such romantic epics as "Becoming Jane" and "Atonement," but in "Wanted," as the mild-mannered accountant who suddenly finds himself caught up in a international war of mystical super-assassins, he is the voice and the personality that makes this far-fetched feature work. Without him, the whole thing would be just another tired retread of "The Matrix."

While the previews on television have sadly given away far too much about this movie's later thrills, what's most noteworthy about finally sitting down to watch "Wanted" is how long it takes for a single bullet to bend or car chase to take flight.

Instead, the opening chapters of the film are about Wesley (McAvoy), a pathetic man caught in a go-nowhere life. He has girlfriend troubles, he hates his job and his obese boss who keeps harassing him; and to make matters worse, he's broke and can barely afford the medication to manage his recurring anxiety attacks.

His mediocre monotony is interrupted one day at the pharmacy, when a silent, smirking woman called Fox (Jolie) eyes him up and then saves him from a hail of gunfire. Much to Wesley's surprise, he learns that he is the son of a famous, recently-murdered assassin, and that this father-figure -- who abandoned Wesley as a child -- is a member of an elite group of killers who through the centuries has saved mankind by killing tyrants and monsters before they can unleash their brand of evil.

On this particular day, Wesley has become the target of his father's killer, and as Fox takes this young man under her wing, teaching him the ways of the warrior, he also meets Sloan (Morgan Freeman), the leader of the American chapter of assassins (known as the Fraternity). Sloan is the one person fluent enough in the secret code of the Fraternity to decode the various messages being sent out around the globe, identifying those who must be killed. And as Sloan sends Wesley out on progressively more dangerous missions, Fox teaches him how to shoot a gun, bend a bullet and channel his anxiety attacks as a way of slowing down the speed of time.

The end goal, of course, is for Wesley to exact revenge on a man who is systematically killing off members of the Fraternity -- and thanks to this subplot, Wesley's missions have an emotional weight to them that goes well beyond bullets and bodies.

Freeman plays it straight for the most part, as the old-and-wise sage passing down his advice and guidance. Jolie, in an interesting decision, does more with her eyes and her body language than with her words. As played by Jolie, Fox is the expert, and she lets her action do the talking (in an extraordinary final scene, she bypasses a climactic speech altogether in favor of letting her facial expressions tell the tale).

But it's McAvoy who keeps us grounded in all this silliness. While the backstory of the Fraternity is preposterous, and the assassination clashes are somewhat anticlimactic, Wesley projects a frustration, an anxiety, and ultimately a fearlessness that gives us something about which to care even when all sense of logic is defied.

Bullets bend, cars flip and assassins take down their targets from miles away; "Wanted" has all of the visceral thrills for which teenagers are hoping -- and far more character than anyone will be expecting.