Review: Contraband

Mark Wahlberg plays a family man and former smuggler forced to do (wait for it) one last job when his wife Kate Beckinsale’s delinquent younger brother (Caleb Landry Jones) runs afoul of drug dealer Giovanni Ribisi and his goons. Jones nearly gets nabbed in a customs raid, dumps a whole lotta cocaine, and earns the ire of volatile Ribisi. Ribisi wants compensation for the discarded blow, and has no qualms in killing all three of them, if he doesn’t get his damn money (and that’s $750,000). So what’s a former smuggler to do? Reunite his old crew, head on over to Panama, grab a whole bunch of counterfeit dinero, and presumably sell it. And using a container ship (captained by a grumpy J.K. Simmons) as basically a courier vessel. Needless to say, it’s a whole lot easier said than done, especially considering crims (and even criminal associates) aren’t a terribly trustworthy lot. While he’s away, Wahlberg entrusts his best pal Ben Foster to look after the wife and kids. Lukas Haas plays one of Wahlberg’s sidekicks, Diego Luna is a Panamanian gangster contact of Wahlberg’s, and David O’Hara is another long-time criminal acquaintance.

 

I’m not sure if this has ever happened before, but Baltasar Kormakur was the star of Reykjavik-Rotterdam, and now here he is directing this 2012 Americanised remake. I haven’t seen the original, but I must say, this one’s a lot better than I was expecting. I absolutely hated the film’s ending, though, because it shows that not one of the film’s characters has learned a single thing from their experiences here. And since this is a bit grittier, harsher, and more realistic than your usual heist flick, I couldn’t quite get rid of that bad taste in my mouth. The situation was too messy for it to have such a tidy, Hollywood ending (No idea how the original ended, though), and I’m not entirely certain Mr. Jones was worth helping out, family or not. Up until the end, the film is highly watchable, if a tad lumpy.

 

The film mixes the traditional heist movie with the standard Mark Wahlberg character of the morally-conflicted guy either drawn into a life of crime (“The Yards”), or being part of a family with criminal influences (“We Own the Night”). Actually the film kinda combines those two character-types together here. This is better than lots of other films of this sort, and the rather limited Wahlberg is effective as a bad guy taking on worse guys. Wahlberg makes the character believable as a reformed crim drawn back into the old life for good reasons. Meanwhile, the no-nonsense David O’Hara and always watchable Ben Foster steal every one of their scenes without really trying, though O’Hara isn’t around nearly enough. Co-star Giovanni Ribisi could learn a lot from watching those two guys. Ribisi certainly isn’t miscast here, and nails the slimy douchebag characteristics of his character. However, as is the actor’s wont, he goes too far by affecting an accent and vocal intonations that are just silly. The man has talent, genuine talent, it’s just that he has no idea what to do with it, and needs a director strong enough to smack him upside the head every now and again. By going the extra mile, he makes his character a complete non-threat. He’s a tool and his posse are all incompetent tools. You want to punch the actor, not just the character, and that’s not really the desired effect. Diego Luna, however, is terrific in a smaller role as a criminal acquaintance of Wahlberg’s, mixing menacing threat and outward (albeit phony) joviality in entertaining fashion. Meanwhile, I wouldn’t be hiring Lukas Haas on any more heists after fucking up here and in “Inception”. Dude’s bad luck, y’all.

 

The film is never dull and quite entertaining overall (if overly dark and yellow), but the problems don’t end with Ribisi’s nonsense. For instance, as beautiful as Kate Beckinsale may well be, an actress she is not. I’ve never seen any talent there at all, whereas at least Wahlberg can be effective in the right role. Beckinsale only fails to suck here when...she’s unconscious. She’s great then.

 

I suppose I should’ve guessed the identity of the film’s surprise villain, especially given who plays the part, but I must confess to having an ‘off’ day. I was fooled, perhaps because the casting seemed too obvious (though the actor in question certainly doesn’t foam at the mouth or signal anything). I also thought it was incredibly stupid that in order to get Caleb Landry Jones’ (who looks a tad young, but I know nothing about crims, so I’ll let it slide) character out of trouble...they involve him in the central heist. Wouldn’t that potentially put him in more trouble? Still, it’s an enjoyable film overall, especially if you like crime movies and heist movies. Adapted by Aaron Guzikowski, it’s certainly a lot better than I had been led to believe. 

 

Rating: B-