This was an On Demand rental that was viewed on January 17th in the comforts of my own home in Chicago. This picture was released back in in the Fall and I was really interested in seeing it but just wasn't able to getting around to it for some reason. The film was well received critically (93% on Rotten Tomatoes) and has grossed $80 million worldwide to date against a $30 million budget.
Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) heads up an FBI kidnap response team in Phoenix and while raiding a home they stumble upon over 40 bodies that appear to be victims of the drug cartel. In the expanded search of the grounds, 2 agents are killed in an explosion of an IED. Kate is then recruited by the mysterious Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) for an even more mysterious "task force" that Kate reluctantly volunteers for. Their 1st mission takes them to El Paso where the mission briefing talks of going into Juarez with a Delta Force unit leading the way to extradite a high ranking cartel member. At the briefing, Kate meets Matt's buddy Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) and realizes that something is not quite right.
Graver let's Kate know that they are going after the Mexican Cartels and they don't do things by the book. Graver is going after the Cartel's top man in the U.S. with the hopes that he will lead them to his boss. Kate gets an idea of how deep things go when she's nearly killed by a Phoenix cop that she meets in a bar. Kate and her partner Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya) tag along on another mission into a drug smuggling tunnel. Alejandro breaks off from the main group and is followed by Kate. Alejandro lets Kate know that he's got his own mission parameters by shooting Kate when she tries to apprehend them. The body armor takes the brunt, but she's incapacitated. When she gets back to the group, she and Reggie confront Graver and he tells them that he's CIA and they're only here because the CIA cannot operate within U.S. borders without a Federal domestic law enforcement agency. The were just pawns all along.
This a really good film and it deserves all the accolades its received. However I was a little disappointed. I've come to the conclusion that this is a "me-problem" as I was anticipating a grittier front lines version of Traffic, which it isn't. Director Denis Villeneuve does a very nice job of portraying the government's lack of morality in the escalating drug war (very similar to the narrative in Clear and Present Danger). Great performances by an all-around solid cast. Benicio Del Toro is nothing short of scary asa the revenge driven Alejandro. He probably doesn't get enough credit for his performances. He's a very driven actor devoted to his craft. Brolin pretty much plays the same character he usually plays which is not to say he doesn't phone the performance in, far from it. I mean, if the CIA was conducting shady operations against the cartel, I would think a guy similar to Brolin's character would be on the team. Blunt is also very good as Kate Macer. Very believable a divorced FBI agent who's married to her job. I kind of feel that her character is very similar to Rachel McAdams' Detective Ani Bezzerides from True Detective...
Search for yourself. It's pretty close. Bezzerides is more of a bad ass.
This is a really good film that people should see. Great performances and a very good director who's work should be viewed and future work anticipated. It's my own fault that I expected more from this picture.
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