Contraband

A Hollywood remake of the Icelandic thriller, Reykjavik-Rotterdam, Contraband is a strictly by the book and workmanlike action movie that is energetic and well made, but just doesn't stand out in any way. The story moves along well enough, and it's certainly never boring, but I kept on having this nagging thought in the back of my mind telling me I had seen this all before. Of course, I had. The movie plays it completely safe, and is a perfectly adequate January release, which means I'll probably have forgotten about it completely by the time Spring comes around.

Mark Wahlberg brings the minimum amount of personality and charisma needed to portray Chris Farraday, a low-key family man with a wife (Kate Beckinsale), two kids, his own business, and a secret past as a criminal smuggler who was famous for being able to pull off just about any job. When he got married, he decided to get out of the business and go straight, but as Hollywood has told us time and time again, the past has a way of catching up with you. In Chris' case, his young brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), is responsible for forcing him back into a life of crime. As the film opens, Andy is forced to dump a load of drugs that he was transporting for a local dealer named Tim Briggs (an over the top Giovanni Ribisi). When Tim finds out about this, he stages an accident that lands Andy in the hospital. It doesn't take long before Tim starts making threats to Chris, demanding that he gets his money from the failed shipment, or else he'll start going after Chris and his family. With no choice but to get back into the smuggling business he thought he'd left behind, Chris teams up with his best friend Sebastian (Ben Foster), and gets the old crew back together in order to pull off one last job.

Contraband is made up of a non-stop series of close calls where Chris just nearly gets caught, shootouts, double crosses, betrayals, and male bonding over counterfeit money. To its credit, the movie seldom slows down, and we are at least interested in what's going on. But, we'd be even more interested if we cared more about the characters, which we don't. We never learn enough about Chris (either as a master smuggler, or a reformed family man) to make him a hero we can truly get behind. Wahlberg is fine enough in the role, but we get the sense he knows his character is more or less a cipher, and he's not really giving it his all. At least he fares better than Kate Beckinsale, whose role basically consists of her sitting and staring at her kids fretfully over and over. And just when the film's third act makes it seem like she's going to get involved in the action, the screenplay goes and basically makes her a plot device.

This is one of those movies that's made well enough, but not enough to be memorable. Nobody goes the extra mile, and nothing really grabs us like it should - Not the plot, not the violence, and certainly not the numerous narrow close calls where Chris is almost caught, which are obviously supposed to be suspenseful, but oddly never build like they should. I think this movie would have benefited greatly from more familiarity amongst its characters. When Chris reunites with his old crew members, we never quite get the sense of closeness or comradeship that we expect. The movie oddly keeps Chris apart from his team as much as possible, so we never get a sense of what they mean to each other, or their pasts. And when the plot reveals a double cross, we react with indifference, as the character in question never really had a chance to grow on us. We understand why Chris feels the way he does about the betrayal, but we're not that surprised or involved.

If Contraband works in any way, it's only because the movie has been made with a certain degree of skill. Not enough to make it worth watching, but certainly enough to make it not seem like a waste of time. The film's director is Baltasar Kormakur, who was the lead actor of the original film. He gives us what we expect in a light crime thriller like this - The action flows smoothly, the story never drags or gets bogged down in pointless exposition, and we never become lost amongst the increasingly complex and convoluted plot. He has these basics down pat. Now he just needs to find a way to make us care about the characters inhabiting his plot. This is where he's on less stable ground. I would love to see what he could do with a stronger script. He shows signs that he knows what he's doing here. He's just got to find that project that lets him knock it out of the park.

I think the studio is smart to release this film so early in the year, when the pickings at the multiplex are fairly slim, or holdovers from the holiday season. Wahlberg's star power is sure to bring in audiences, and while it won't wow them, it's certainly not a bad time. It's a fine little time waster, really. I just hope the filmmakers have slightly loftier goals for their next film.

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