In digital release, the crime action film 'The Baker', where Ron Perlman's character proves he's not ready for retirement yet.

An elderly, lonely man () - the owner of a small bakery, whose name remains a mystery until the very end of the film (so for convenience, everyone just calls him the Baker) lives far from the big city and bakes bread every morning, disciplinarily kneading the dough.

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Every night, the Baker is tormented by nightmares with pictures from a past life, in which he was either a hitman or a special agent — the film's authors prefer not to specify this, continuing to create an aura of mystery around the Baker, but it's obvious that Perlman's character is a dangerous man. Well, who else could bake croissants with such love without changing his gloomy expression? 

One day, the Baker is unexpectedly visited by his son Peter (Joel Moore), whom he hasn't seen in several years, and brings with him his little daughter Delphi (Emma Ho). The girl doesn't speak due to a psychological trauma she once suffered, but she unashamedly shoplifts petty items in supermarkets, parking lots, and even in her grandfather's bakery.

Peter asks his father to look after his daughter while he settles some business in the city. Meanwhile, the head of the local mafia (Harvey Keitel) declares a hunt for the man who took a bag of drugs from the scene of a clash between two gangs. The trail inevitably leads the thugs to the small bakery, where only grandfather and granddaughter remain together.  

Time and again, veteran actors appear in such films about personal vendettas and attempts to replace a bloody past with some harmless profession. Liam Neeson in 'Taken', tired of taking lives, began protecting them, Bob Odenkirk in 'Nobody' turned into ordinary office plankton. Logan, aka Wolverine, became a limousine driver. Even Harrison Ford in the latest Indiana Jones, without a second thought, traded his hat and whip for a quiet professorship at the university.

And now it's Ron Perlman's turn, whose image of a harmless baker with a murky past adds to this collection of reflective old men who once didn't love enough, didn't give enough warmth to their loved ones, and are ready to do anything to atone for their sins and help a loved one. As a rule, an absolutely harmless creature, but capable of teaching a seasoned veteran to look at things not through the sights of a gun, but from a slightly different angle, where there is more joy and light.

Surprisingly, the work of the little-known Canadian director Jonathan Sobol, although it doesn't particularly stand out among representatives of this genre, still manages not to bury it completely, giving it a chance for further life. The palpable secondariness of the plot is not overloaded with the author's vision, the camera carefully, as if from a textbook, changes close-ups to wide shots and imperceptibly hides Perlman's stunt double when performing particularly dangerous stunts (age, after all!).

The glossy picture diligently pleases the eye throughout the compact runtime, and the supporting actors do not strive for a supertask but simply do what is required of them. Somehow, the magnificent Harvey Keitel also sneaked into this, but his participation in 'The Baker' is limited to at most two minutes of screen time and a big name on the poster. 

As for the fight scenes, there are few of them here. The Baker conserves his remaining strength and tries to use his head more, but in a situation where a fight is unavoidable, he acts lethally and calculatingly. True, even here, the legacy is not avoided. Sobol tries to keep up with trends, and in 'The Baker', Perlman's character, in line with his profession, first uses kitchen utensils (whatever is at hand), and then a defibrillator in the hospital.

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'The Baker' is a side film, not reaching for the stars, but made with love and the diligence of an honors student. Jonathan Sobol does not bow and scrape to his colleagues, taking from category B the maximum of proven schemes and using them strictly for their intended purpose, without losing the rhythm.

The heroes of 'The Baker' are stern, brutal men of advanced age who would be happy to retire but delay this moment because those who have come to replace them are still unable to take responsibility for their actions or give their child elementary attention and care. Well, they'll cover for them, offer a shoulder, even replace the parents if necessary. But how long will they last?