CONTRABAND

Contrabad

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi, Kate Beckinsale

Contraband is an odd film. Not odd in a David Lynch sort of way, but just odd in general. Lukas Haas, Ben Foster and Kate Beckinsale offer solid performances, and the cast lay good foundations for the film but unfortunately the cast is the strongest element of Contraband with no smart script to back them up, which is something that every heist movie demands and this one claims to be.

Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, an ex-smuggler who has abandoned his former criminal ways to start a family and a legitimate business. That is until one day when his young brother-in-law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) gets himself a large debt by trying, and failing, his hand at smuggling drugs for low level crime boss Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi). Andy has two weeks to repay the debt, or not only face a painful death but the prospect that the debt will be passed to Farraday and his young family. Farraday has no choice, apparently, but to get his old crew together, get on a boat and try and smuggle millions in counterfeit money over the Panama Canal. That would be the easiest thing to do, right?

He leaves his wife and two young boys with his best friend Sebastian (Ben Foster) and they then have to, apparently, hide themselves from this low level thug. I say apparently because I really couldn’t see the issue - the debt is owed to a pretty under powered thug, but a large threat he apparently is, and Farraday is on a deadline to smuggle in something valuable to save his family’s lives. There lies another issue with Contraband, as everyone seems to play a bad guy, and try as they might, Mark Wahlberg’s character doesn’t come across as good, just another shade of black.

It’s overly predictable and you can’t help but feel like the writers are just trying to be clever (and failing). Any heist movie tries to have some clever finale, that “Oh that’s how they got the money out of the vault!” moment, and Contraband tries its heart out to give you that. But the glaring plot holes and scattered writing just don’t let it get there. There’s not enough suspense to keep you hooked, as you know the lead character is infallible and is always going to figure out some convoluted way to get out of a jam.

Contraband is the first Hollywood film from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. A famous actor in his own right, Baltasar actually starred as the lead character in the Icelandic film Contraband is based on - Reykjavik-Rotterdam. Though the similarities between the two films are minimal and the direction of Contraband isn’t anything amazing, it’s an okay effort but nothing ground-breaking.
The cast is the best thing about this flick and you can’t help but feel like they’re wasted on this script.

_TOM VARIAN