Contraband (2012)
Certified: 16
Duration: 110 minutes
Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Caleb Landry Jones, Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, J.K. Simmons, Diego Luna, Robert Wahlberg
KRS release
A master smuggler gone straight, Chris Faraday (Mark Wahlberg) is happily married to Kate (Kate Beckinsale), has two sons and a thriving business in installation of security alarms.
... the film decides to be ‘smart’ and ends up being a bit of a toothless affair- Johan Galea
When Kate’s brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) tries to do a smuggling run, it ends up badly and he gets into debt with Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), a violent New Orleans gangster.
Chris needs to clear this debt not only for Andy’s sake but also for his family’s sake, as the debt will be transferred onto him and his family.
So Chris returns to smuggling for one final huge job and leaves his beloved wife and sons in the care of his very best friend Sebastian (Ben Foster).
But before doing this he goes to see his father Bud (William Lucking) in prison. The plan is to go to Panama and bring in a van-load of counterfeit money.
On his way there on board a ship, he is helped by engineer Igor (Olafur Darri Olafsson), Danny (Lukas Haas), who has just got married, and cook Tarik (Lucky Johnson). Andy tags along to help out with the job.
Pressure starts increasing when Briggs starts visiting Kate and threatening her and the boys, and she calls Chris to tell him all about the situation.
Meanwhile, the ship’s captain (J.K. Simmons) is increasingly suspicious and the plan starts going all wrong.
To top it off, someone in the group is turning into a traitor.
Contraband is not a bad movie per se and partly looks like a nifty little thriller of the type Mr Wahlberg sometimes churns out.
However, it opts to exaggerate matters and go over the top, and I ended up losing connection with the film. Too many things go wrong and the script piles on a lot of coincidences, particularly with the “painting issue” becoming something of a bloated mechanism.
For two-thirds of the film I was enjoying the clashes between the likeable-as-always Mr Wahlberg and the deliciously-evil Mr Ribisi. What I wanted was a showdown!
Instead, the film decides to be smart and ends up being a bit of a toothless affair.
You have two competing storylines: the wife in trouble back home and the husband in a mess in Panama.
It would have been better were we given more insight into what was happening back home.
Mr Ribisi seems to be having fun and does not give a hoot about the script at all.
Ms Beckinsale’s role as the wife is undemanding for an actress of her stature and could have been given to any other actress.
Mr Simmons is obviously having a ball as the ship’s captain, while Ben Foster delivers a rather mean performance.
The film, an adaptation of the 2008 Iceland film Reykjavík-Rotterdam, feels as if it had been made a decade ago.
Contraband has many cool elements; it’s just that it did not convince me that much thought had been placed in bringing all these elements together.