Alexander Pope once said, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for
he shall never be disappointed.” Expectations are a funny thing, and run in
concert with ambition. The greater a filmmaker's ambition, generally
expectations are raised right along with it. The problems arise when a film has
all of the necessary ingredients to achieve greatness, and yet the ambition is
shockingly weak. Such is the case with Triple
9, a decent-sized cop thriller from an accomplished director whose three
prior features; The Proposition, The Road, and Lawless,
were muscular, machismo-laden dramas that should make him perfect for a story
on corrupt cops. With a cast that any director would sell off their kids for,
the film should truly be something special, and yet the end result is merely a
serviceable thriller with few memorable qualities.
Triple 9 is a good film, but it should have been
great. Matt Cooke's screenplay drew acclaim as part of the Black List, the best
unproduced screenplays going around Hollywood. It teases some interesting, unexpected
twists that unfortunately never pan out into anything remotely surprising. What
it does with fairly rote material is still entertaining, largely due to the
novelty of the A-list cast and Hillcoat's slow-burn pacing. Chiwetel Ejiofor
plays Michael, a bank robber with Special Forces training who pulls off jobs
with his military pal, Russell (The Walking Dead's
Norman Reedus), a pair of corrupt cops in Marcus (Anthony Mackie) and Jorge
(Clifton Collins Jr.), and Russell's drug addict brother, Gabe (Aaron Paul).
The opening crime, while simple in design, is nonetheless a barnburner given
energy and street-level grit by DP Nicholas Karakatsanis, who does
tremendous work throughout.
None of these guys are what you would call
saints, but even they are being manipulated by a more devious power, Irina
(Kate Winslet, sporting big hair and bigger Russian accent), a mobster's wife
who neglects payment and demands they take on another, near-impossible job.
Michael, the de facto leader of the crew, refuses, but he's forced into it by
Irina's violent tendencies. Plus, Irina's sister (Wonder Woman herself, Gal
Gadot) is the mother of his son, and he doesn't want them to take him away for
good. To pull off this unlikely crime, they'll need to buy some extra time. One
way to do it is to cause a "triple 9", police code for an officer
down, by killing Marcus' new partner, Chris Allen (Casey Affleck).
Chris is pretty much the only redeemable
character in the entire film, and that includes Chris' uncle (Woody Harrelson,
playing a less racist version of his Rampart character), who happens to be
investigating the robberies by Michael's crew. But Chris is also barely a part
of the narrative thrust for much of the film, as it focuses mostly on Michael's
crumbling group and their various bouts of conscience. There isn't a single
turn the film takes that you haven't seen before in any film directed by David
Ayer (End
of Watch, Sabotage).
There's no honor among thieves or dirty cops, and that's especially true when
you combine both. Betrayals are set up a mile in advance and play out exactly
as anyone could easily predict.
While certainly familiar, the cast makes
up for much of it, even though only a few of the starry bunch get well-rounded
characters to portray. Mackie gets the meatiest role by far, as Marcus is
conflicted over being asked to kill one of his brothers in blue. Affleck is
perfectly solid as Chris, but the character is too thinly-drawn and mostly out
of the action until the final stretch. Ejiofor brings his usual commanding
presence, and he's particularly good when paired up with Winslet, although she
probably could have turned the hamminess up a few notches. Think what Jessica
Chastain was able to do in A Most Violent
Year and that's where
Winslet should have gone, but she's disappointingly straight-laced. On the
complete opposite end of the spectrum is an appearance by The Wire's
Michael K. Williams, and let's just say you'll never look at Omar Little the
same way again.
Triple 9 should scratch the itch for fans of the
genre, but those who look at the incredible level of talent and expect a
shotgun blast of raw power; you're only going to get a .22.
Rating: 3 out of 5
