Contraband

Contraband (2012)

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R - 109 min - Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller - 13 January 2012
Big Blue Sky Rating : 6.4/10

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Director : Baltasar Kormákur
Writers : Aaron Guzikowski, Arnaldur Indriðason
Stars : Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster

Chris Faraday once smuggled illegal items or contraband into the country on freighters. He left that life behind, got married has a family and went legit. But when his brother-in-law got involved with Briggs, a drug dealer and when he blew a deal, Briggs demands restitution which he can't deliver. So Chris offers to find a way to pay him but the he threatens Chris' family if he doesn't deliver. So he gets on a freighter destined for Panama and he sets out to bring back some counterfeit currency. Briggs "goes to see" Chris' family. When Chris learns of this he asks his friend Sebastian to take care of them which he does. He tells Chris that it would be better to bring drugs instead of the cash.

Weak stuff.

I love crime thrillers, and I was hoping for this to be an enjoyable ride. It's got a great cast and I'm always game for a solid new entry into this genre. Unfortunately, there was so much of it that didn't work. A remake of an Icelandic feature, Contraband uses the set up of a former smuggler, played my Mark Wahlberg, having to get back into the game in order to protect his brother-in-law and his own family. The heist of it all ends up being structured like your typical heist movie, with a group of slightly diverse males teaming up and going against generic plot twists, betrayals and obstacles along the way to their ultimate goal.

It follows your standard procedure to a tee, along with some focus on the at home struggle of Wahlberg's wife, played by Kate Beckinsale, as she is protected by Ben Foster's character from the crime lord hounding Wahlberg (Giovanni Ribisi). Most of the problems with the film come from the script up, as the plot becomes more and more ludicrous as it goes on. Even within the exaggerated crime world that the film portrays, the twists and diversions often seem silly and hard to believe. There are some decent action sequences throughout, but for a film that appears to take itself as seriously as this one does the logic of it all is way off.

Director Baltasar Kormakur seems to have a good grasp when it comes to the action, but in the domestic drama things get dull fast, which is hard to achieve when you have such a superb cast. Kate Beckinsale is completely wasted in the stock wife role, Giovanni Ribisi is doing some strange Brando impression that was very awkward to watch (and I usually adore him) and Ben Foster seems to be the only one in this cast who really knows what he's doing; which begs the question as to why he was in this in the first place. The action narrative doesn't blend well at all with the domestic struggles, and when they come together in the final act it all feels incredibly disjointed. I was hoping for an entertaining ride here, but I didn't get much of that at all.

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