Just Who is Getting Robbed?
Contraband is based on an Icelandic film named Reykjavik-Rotterdam. When the Icelandic film was made, the young actor Baltasar Kormákur had not yet begun his directorial career. In Reykjavik-Rotterdam, Kormákur played the lead role of Kristoph. Under the directional tutelage of his predecessor, Mark Wahlberg will now be playing the same role with a more Americanized handle of “Chris Farraday”.
In Contraband, Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-international drug smuggler with a reputation for once being the best in the business. Since he has cleaned up his act, he has married his wife Kate, had two sons and built his own security alarm company. Just when it seems he will never have to deal with the life he abandoned, his wife’s youngest brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) attempts to take up the trade. When he botches a job for the ruthless crime boss Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), he is put into the hospital. Now he has an enormous debt that would be impossible to pay off without breaking the law. If Andy dies before the debt is collected, his sister Kate will be responsible for paying it. Farraday is now forced to save his family by doing what he does best, smuggling illegal goods across national borders. With the help of his friend Sebastian Abney (Ben Foster), the reluctant smuggler gathers together his old crew. One final run to Panama stands between him and the security of his family. But within hours of his target, complications begin to arise.
This is Kormákur’s first American movie. Maybe that is why it always seemed that he was playing it a little too safe. This film should have been anything but safe. All of the ingredients for a successful action flick are here. Even so, something is still absent from this heist. The characters are so formulaic and one-dimensional that it is a struggle to even care what happens to them. As the plot becomes more convoluted, it is also more clumsy and harder to believe. Throughout the movie, Farraday’s cohorts and opponents refer to him as a “top-notch Houdini of smugglers.” If he is actually that skillful and suave, then why is he always so flummoxed when he hits stumbling blocks that most would consider obvious? It seems that Wahlberg is not putting all his effort into this potboiler of a January action film. Just like the “Marky Mark” days of old, Wahlberg has matured beyond movies like this one. Some of the best scenes were those starring Ben Foster. His intensely profound gaze always makes the viewer wonder what is really happening. Costarring in this international heist film are J.K. Simmons, Kate Beckinsale, Lukas Haas, Diego Luna and William Lucking.
While it is better than some January releases, it is appropriate for Contraband to be shown at the beginning of the new year. This is the kind of typical no-think action escapism film that usually packs theaters after the Oscar crowds have thinned. But these characters are so banal and dreary that escapism may not be the right word. Remaking Reykjavik-Rotterdam gives Kormákur another chance to play the smuggler. The only difference is this time he will be running your ticket price across the Icelandic border.
