Contraband
Mark Wahlberg tries to save his family in “Contraband,” an action drama that raised only half. When the improbabilities are so numerous that they prevent you follow the story, there is something wrong.
Since his brother (Caleb Landry Jones) has alienated a dangerous thug (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris (Mark Wahlberg) will do anything to fix his mistakes, even embarking on a boat to Panama to bring the false money and maybe even drugs. He says the safety of his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and her children Sebastian (Ben Foster), his best friend. However, not everything will run as expected…
Noticed in 2000 with the release of very friendly “101 Reykjavik”, director Baltasar Kormakur had been discreet in the past decade, alternating drinking efforts (“The Sea”) and the undeniable triumphs (“Jar City”). In addition to being a filmmaker, it is also an actor. It was just the headline of an Icelandic thriller called “Reykjavik-Rotterdam” which was remade in the United States, calling now … “Contraband”!
The director is not his first American film (as evidenced by its very average “Inhale”) and he knew very well include this story in a kind of throbbing Americanizes. The references are indeed all U.S. and they have a lot to Michael Mann. The few action scenes, thrilling and dramatic, are set to quarter-turn, in a controlled realization and without embellishment.
It is a different scenario, punctuated by white son and improbabilities major that meets all the imaginable Hollywood conventions. The few touches of humor can not save the tone of the whole funeral. Especially the many themes (the importance of family, friends, the temptation that appears at the turn, etc…) Are treated on the surface, raising hopes that a James Gray could have done with this portrait of society, where everything the world is potentially corruptible.
The plot is interested to single characters. Despite a sparkling distribution where the strong masculine gules to give heart joie (in the disorder there are Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, Diego Luna and J.K. Simmons), no individual displays more than an emotion. The Sebastian embodied with force by Ben Foster out a little lot, seducing by its complexity and its moral dilemmas. It is however quickly recalled to the order by much duller issues and expected, where is the real star Mark Wahlberg is its number of heroes too nice and perfect.
Following with some interest, being far greater than his mundane trailer, “Contraband” is yet difficult to entertain completely. The feature is much too soft and unfinished; simply deliver the goods instead of surprise, surprise addition able.
