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Tuesday, April 16, 2024
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HOLLYWOOD CONTRABAND
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: ***
There are films made on predictable scripts. Yet their execution often raises
their quality a few notches and though overall there`s nothing really to love or
hate as the film hangs in a balance in no man`s land, you do give a thumbs up to
the director for the brave rescue act. "Contraband" is one such film.
An ex-smuggler who has gone legit is forced to return to his old ways after his
brother-in-law gets into trouble. He faces insurmountable odds to smuggle a huge
cache of counterfeit money while also trying to protect his family.
This film is like the famous computer game "Dave"; where the
protagonist encounters seemingly impossible obstacles one after the other to
emerge victorious. Thus, the crux of the story is not revelation of secrets,
though it has its predictable share, but in the impossibility of the obstacle
before him and the resources that he brings together to get over it.
And though our hero is a smuggler, in typical films of the genre, he is given
enough moral authority in the minds of the viewers - he is protecting his
family, he is being set up, he is a good guy at heart - for us not to mind his
prosperity stemming for an illegitimate act.
And the stakes put up against him are so high that your heart goes out to him
and his family. You root for him as you know he has no option but to push
through the inferno and not around it because inside it is smelting the purest
gold that will solve all his problems of the past, present and future. And it is
in making you pray for his success that the film succeeds, and not because of
any cinematic merit.
It is a formula film where the hero ends up richer than he started out and the
villains are punished. Yet, like life, it is about the journey. Such a film
cannot be self conscious. It has to be natural enough and the direction,
invisible.
Yet, that does not take away the accusation that almost everything in this
remake of an Icelandic film "Reykjavik-Rotterdam", in which
"Contraband" director Baltasar Kormakur is the lead, is taken from
somewhere else; from heist, gangsta or action thrillers. Yet, it is not taken to
such a level to seem overbearing.
For instance, in the end, the discovery of a rare painting worth more than the
money made in the heist, is typical of a Guy Ritchie movie where two ancient
guns or a big diamond makes it worthwhile for our protagonist (copied copiously
worldwide). Yet, in the film it seems more like a closing of a loop of a
previous heist, though any discerning viewer would have obviously figured it out
much before.
Kate Beckinsale is almost wasted in a small role while actor and producer of the
film, Mark Whalberg plays a kind of role he has become comfortable in over the
years. A good, but not a `must` watch.
