[rating=7.00]
There’s a fleeting novelty in watching The Infiltrator, which features the once and future Heisenberg, Bryan Cranston, taking on the role of U.S. Customs agent Robert Mazur, the man most largely responsible for bringing down the infamous Medellin cartel and its leader, Pablo Escobar. It’s kind of fun to see Cranston, an actor with skill enough to earn the praise of Anthony Hopkins for his abilities, to step into the other side of law enforcement and become a man whose name is now synonymous with high stakes, potentially deadly, law enforcement action.
In fact, the book upon which The Infiltrator is based, itself written by the real life Mazur, is mentioned several times, in passing, in Cranston’s name making series Breaking Bad, causing a stir of initial appeal in the minds of audiences. That initial appeal and novelty, as I mentioned, is fleeting and soon fades under the raw intensity of the movie’s performances. Very quickly, the idea that you’re seeing Walter White play a lawman melts away, leaving you with a not-so-subtle reminder that Cranston never was, and never will be, a one-trick-pony actor.
Though the film is anchored by the performance of Cranston, he’s the sort of actor who inspires those who surround him to achieve their absolute best, and his skill trickles down throughout the cast causing even those in minor roles to achieve greater heights in their performance. John Leguizamo, in particular, shines as Agent Emir Abreu, Mazur’s partner and philosophical counterpart. Where Mazur is by the book and careful, Abreu plays it loose and carefree. Some of the film’s best moments come from their ideological disagreements, and it’s quite often stunning to watch Leguizamo use Cranston as a springboard for his own talents.
What’s truly stunning, however, is how much greater the performances are than the material they’re performing. As easy as it is to get lost in the portrayals by the actors, it’s difficult to overlook the overall middling status of the script. Nothing you’ll see here is decidedly different from anything you’ve seen in any number of undercover dramas produced over the years. From Serpico to The Departed, The Infiltrator feels, at times, like a pastiche of characters and situations that are well-trod and predictable.
The story of Mazur’s infiltration of the Medellin Cartel has been explored to death in pop culture in the decades since his bold plan came to fruition. Rather than focusing on dealers and moving up the supply chain, Mazur focused on funding, damning the cartel by catering directly to their greed rather than their product. The reality is an exciting tale of intrigue and deception that changed the way law enforcement handles drug cartels. Here, it all feels rather rote.
You can almost play a rousing game of undercover bingo as the movie unfolds. A cop wonders where the line is? Check! A cop loses himself in the role he’s playing? Check! A cop finds himself nearly outed by a simple mistake? Check! Anyone with any experience watching an undercover cop movie will see the twists, turns, and drama telegraphed from miles away, and won’t be surprised by where the journey takes you.
Still, it’s never not fun to watch the cast perform even if the material they’re performing is never anything more than so-so. Every moment of the film is elevated by the intensity of its performances, and that alone is more than enough to watch and enjoy The Infiltrator. At its heart, it’s an 80’s period piece, and the castles the cast build in their Reagan-era sandbox are quite often breathtaking. Director Brad Furman recreates the decade of excess in painstaking detail, capturing the 80’s so perfectly you’ll lament they ever ended.
While I would never go so far as to call The Infiltrator great, or even particularly remarkable, film, it’s still a perfectly enjoyable film and a fascinating study in the power of strong acting to heighten even the most mundane of scripts. Nothing new is added to the genre, not in any meaningful way, but that’s easy enough to forget once you get drawn in by the performances. At the very least, it’s a great reminder of what we’ve got in Cranston, who’s so good at what he does that even the mediocre feels great in his presence.
The Infiltrator is now playing in theaters everywhere.
One Response