The Infiltrator (2016)

 

I'll stick to "based on a true story" setting for this week too. "The Infiltrator" is yet another movie set in the context of the high cocaine traffic period of the '80s dominated by Pablo Escobar and the Colombian cartel. 

The story here, as the title says, is an infiltration action within the criminal organization led by a US customs agent under cover. The movie is dense, mixing the two parallel lives of the protagonist. The first, a quiet existence with his family, besides the second, under constant threat posing as a business man offering his services for laundering millions of dollars coming out from the drug sales. In brief, we have all the ingredients of the genre, interceptions, informers, assassinations, etc., the final hystorical significant consequence being the fall of BCCI, the seventh commercial bank in the world at the time, and apparently one of the main financial institutions involved in the transfers of funds to the Colombian organization.

The movie has all the required elements for a top title, with the exception of somebody to know how to combine these properly = the direction fails, or at least that's what I felt. It gives the impression of an unfinished product. Although the subject offers a lot, the narrative is not properly balanced, sometimes seeming either exaggerated or superficial. The actors cast are doing their job well, with Bryan Cranston visibly trained for the role here by the part he played in "Breaking Bad". However, at some times you feel a bit of overacting, and again it's rather more the fault of the direction where it looks like saving on the number of takes shot for a scene.

To wrap up, I can't end this without making a quick reference to a long series in the same line with what we have here. We can start with "Donnie Brasco" from '97, where Johnny Depp acts as an undercover FBI agent infiltrated in the New York mafia, and we can continue with "Blow" from 2001, with the same Johnny Depp as a smuggler working for the Colombian cartel. In "Kill the Messenger" from 2014, Jeremy Renner plays a journalist who investigates the CIA involvement in the drug traffic of the time, and in "American Made" from 2017, Tom Cruise is Barry Seal, another smuggler working for the same group turned informer, a character who we briefly meet here too. The list can be much longer, but I reduced to titles directly linked with the subject in "The Infiltrator". Where's my point, is that neither of the above is a bad movie, but out of all I think only "Kill the Messenger" would rank below "The Infiltrator". To conclude: if you like this one, you should better check the other three ;)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

 

The Railway Man (2013)

 

I'm not in the best writing mood, and as in the last few weeks I only have one option that I watched recently to make it even more complicated. "The Railway Man" is another adaptation of a true story. Eric Lomax, a veteran of WW2 seems to find his peace 30 years after, when he marries Patricia. It just seems, because the post-traumatic stress is still there. So, we find out about the horror that Lomax + all his regiment experienced, being sent to forced labor for the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway. That's the first part of the movie.

In the second half of the movie Lomax and also we find out that a former translator of the Kenpeitai (the secret Japanese police), member of the interrogation teams (and implicitly torture) is still alive and works as guide in the '80s in a war museum. In search for his peace, Lomax decides to pay him a visit, departing with revenge thoughts, but what he finds is apparently a guy transformed by his own trauma. The meeting, therefore, concludes with a reconciliation beneficial for both men. 

The whole story, with minor differences, is indeed real, Lomax also publishing a book about it. I'd risk saying that the book is better than the movie, although I didn't read it. About the movie... you shouldn't expect much unfortunately. The first part is ok, although it tends to get a bit melodramatic for a real situation. The transition to the second half, is however sudden, forced and the way it's staged loses even more of its credibility. That's pretty much all I have to say about it... If I'd have to draw an average between the two parts...

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

 

 "The Old Man & the Gun" is a slow and sad, short but long version of "Catch Me If You Can". Short summary: both are biopics centered on an atypical villain - in this one, a bank thief in his 70's, in the other a crook and check forger before turning 20. In a sense, I guess the impression the movie leaves you with after the end is somehow proportional with the depth of the character. But I won't lengthen this entry by also adding a summary for "Catch Me If You Can" (just google for Frank Abagnale). 

In "The Old Man & the Gun" we have Robert Redford as Forrest Tucker, a guy who spent his entire life behind bars, between escapes (counting more than 16) perfecting a technique of robbing a bank in the most polite manner. The legend (and the movie) says that he done that without firing a single shot. What we have in this film is a brief look over the last few freedom windows the guy enjoyed in his life.

What transpires from the main character demeanor, but mostly from the acting for the cop who follows him (Casey Affleck) is a state of chronic boredom that reflects in the whole movie. The more-or-less 90 minutes it has seem like two hours and a half. Even if the '80s feeling is quite authentic, the cast is full of known names, and here and there we have something that catches our attention, there's a debilitating slowness consistent throughout the the movie length, and the permanent sense of something missing + also knowing that we won't have a happy end here, but neither an unhappy one...

If I think better on it now, I guess "Catch Me If You Can" is not the best reference to compare with. More appropriate would be "The Mule", which I had on my blog a couple months ago. We find there pretty much all the context elements we have here: a nice old guy who's a criminal mastermind, an almost frustrated cop who gets obsessed with the case, a romance episode at the dusk of someone's life. The difference is in the way all these are connected. Even though we also have a slow development there too, and the ending is pretty much the same in terms of "happiness", you want to keep watching to see what happens, unlike here where you'd rather not.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

The Invisible Man (2020)

I missed the classic novel by H.G. Wells, having the same title as the current movie, "The Invisible Man", from my teenage readings. However, after seeing "Hollow Man" 20 years ago, I found out that the book is a gritty horror. Not that it has much in common with any of the two movies, although both are placed in the same genre by IMDb.

The subject, both in the movies, and from what I heard also in the book, has one common element = obviously, the invisible man, a researcher who manages following an experiment to reach that particular state of being. Unfortunately, he doesn't take advantage of the situation in a positive way, in all cases being corrupted by mental issues. In "Hollow Man", and again from what I heard in the book, the reason is not being able to reverse the experiment. I don't remember much more of the movie besides the fact that it had cool effects for that time and that I liked it, and about the book, as I said, I didn't read it. In the latest version of "Invisible Man" the story runs somehow different. The experiment is actually a suit created by a genius in the optical field, Adrian Griffin, suit that's obviously removable = the effect can be reversed. The optical genius however has another issue, more likely an obsession of total control over his wife, Cecilia. Obsession that manifests among others by installing cameras and security systems transforming the family residence into a jail. The result is that the desperate wife decides to escape one night, taking temporary shelter in cop's house, a friend of her sister. The trauma is deep enough though to keep her confined inside, frightened to make a step out until she finds out that her, now ex-husband, killed himself...

The trailer tells us how things evolve further. The movie has, if I counted well, something like three wannabe twists, out of which well... to be fair, one is not that predictable. Besides that, pretty much everything is predictable. Maybe except a couple actions that don't really connect. Fortunately, the movie is dynamic enough to not get you bored, but what saves it is especially the way it's made. Indeed, it builds a tense feeling that drives it towards horror, although I'd classify it more as a thriller - this effect is, however, rare enough to appreciate it (yes, I know that not longer than a month ago I had "The Guest" on my blog, exceptions happen). I'd also add a plus for avoiding excess violence. Pretty much all of it is what you see in the trailer, except one scene that's more bloody. One more thing to mention is the art direction/set decoration/location setting for the choice made regarding the Griffin residence. The large estate, placed somewhere on the sea shore, the interiors, even the fence, all together seem to get an actor's role at some point. I wouldn't go up to comparing with the Overlook Hotel in "The Shining", but it's still somewhere in top 10 estates to be noticed in movies.

Out of "Hollow Man" version 2000 and "The Invisible Man" version 2020, I finally think I'd go for "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" version 1992. Which is based on another book that mixes SciFi, action and comedy that doesn't have any connection with Wells' novel or the horror genre. Funny enough, it's directed by John Carpenter ("Halloween", "The Fog", "The Thing", etc.). But again, I don't remember much of it, besides the good impression it made to me when I've seen it. Maybe I'm nostalgic for more peaceful times... Although, if I look at the trailers, ignoring the aging effect. Well, judge for yourself...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

The Guilty (2018)

Again, due to lack of time, I chose the shortest option available = "The Guilty", for this week. It's a Danish production that got enough awards around two years ago to make me notice it and check it as "must watch". It's a good movie, but as usual, when the expectancy is high, the final impression is not that good (valid for the opposite too - check my previous blog entry).

The subject in "The Guilty" fits well for a theatrical representation. Asger Holm e is an impulsive police officer, under investigation for killing a suspect during an intervention, and temporarily sent to a desk job as an operator for emergency calls. The entire development of the movie is basically built on that: phone calls. The first couple have a role to define an initial profile of the character we have in front of us, in brief: a guy who seems well-intended but a bit too much self-confident. Afterwards, we're getting into the main story - Iben, mother of two children, claims to be abducted, apparently by her ex-husband after a violent conflict in front of their kids. It's the first call that seems important enough to Asger to catch his full attention.

The whole impact of "The Guilty" is based on the case evolving with each call that brings new elements in the story. I already advanced a bit too much with the info there, to even give some hint that twists are present. I'd just say more that in the end it's easy to draw some conclusion on the main subject of the movie, which is actually on the other side of the phone compared to what you might think it the beginning. Precisely, the movie is less about Iben, and more about Asger, ending as a characterization that evolves from the start profile to a morale saying that following your first impulse is not the best option. Well, that's debatable... or at least to me the movie seemed a bit one-sided on this, which can be discussed if you remove the context (despite the fact that in general I'd agree with the idea).

Anyway, to slowly move towards conclusion, there are a couple more things to mention. For a movie that lasts below 90 minutes, out of which most are audio phone calls, we have something that's a bit weird... it's both impressive how much it can get from the sound effects, but I can't get over some parts where the sound editing gets sloppy. That's valid also for the realism of the script, which in might make it hard to watch as drama intensity, but at a certain point it's getting a bit exaggerated in regard to what you could do undisturbed in an emergency calls office, where you're not the only operator. So, I'll stick to the opinion that the movie is ok, but it could've been better.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5