Hot Picks
|
|
|
Spenser Confidential
USA 2020
produced by Toby Ascher, Peter Berg, Stephen Levinson, Neal H. Moritz, Mark Wahlberg, Bill Bannerman (executive), Eric Heffron (executive), John Logan Pierson (executive), Stefan Sonnenfeld (executive) for Original Film, Film 44/Netflix
directed by Peter Berg
starring Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Michael Gaston, Bokeem Woodbine, Marc Maron, James DuMont, Post Malone, Colleen Camp, Hope Olaide Wilson, Kip Weeks, Brandon Scales, Ayana Brown, Dustin Tucker, Josh Cronin, Alfred Briere, Rebecca Gibel, Alexandra Vino, Patty Ross, Chad Nehemiah Reed-Lopes, Chaz Jeremiah Reed-Lopes, Anthony 'Ace' Thomas, Johnny Alves, Rich Skinner, Trevor Robertson, Donald Cerrone, Christopher Weigel, Arthur Wahlberg, Thomas Rosales jr, Stephanie Rodgers, Miles Walters, Paris Nixon, Marilyn Leung, Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, Bo Cleary, Jim Boyd, Bianca de la Garza, Jenny Johnson, Alberto Vasallo III, Va Lynda K. Robinson, Joe Carresi, Sam Schechter, Marina Varano, Kallie Tabor, Dennis Montgomery III, Mikelyn Roderick, Andresito Germosen De La Cruz, Eric Weinstein, Jeffrey Vincent Thompson, Josh Brogadir, Kevin McCormick, Leah Procito, Nick Cyr, Regis Prograis, Jason A. Martinez, Brandon M. Shaw, Jason Molina, Carlos Escarfullery, Carrick O'Quinn, Wayne Dalglish, Adrian M. Mompoint, Sal Mirabella jr, Jeff Bouffard, Dennis Pietrantonio, Billy Concha, Cary 'Big Shug' Guy, Kevin Molis, Pat O'Shea, Kevin R. Kelly, Lawrence Duran, Mark Schotz, Thanhminh Tan Thai
screenplay by Sean O'Keefe, Brian Helgeland, based on the novel Wonderland by Ace Atkins, Spenser created by Robert B. Parker, music by Steve Jablonsky
Spenser
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
Ex cop Spenser (Mark Wahlberg) has spent the last five years in jail
because he has physically attacked his commanding officer Captain Boylan
(Michael Gaston) because he was a dirty cop - and a wifebeater because
subtlety's not this film's thing. On the day Spenser's released from jail,
Boylan is killed execution style and for a time, Spenser's under suspicion
even, but his former partner Driscoll (Bokeem Woodbine) is convinced of
his innocence from square one, plus Spenser has a airtight alibi. Then
another cop, Graham (Brandon Scales), is found dead, an apparent suicide -
but Spenser has known Graham back when and is convinced he cannot have
commited suicide, and when it's revealed that Graham was a dirty cop,
Spenser has a gut feeling something's wrong, and he, helped by his
roommate Hawk (Winston Duke), their landlord Henry (Alan Arkin), and later
even his on-again-off-again girlfriend Cissy (Iliza Shlesinger), starts to
investigate. And while he gets beaten up again and again he slowly puts a
case together that has something to do with an abandoned dog race track
that's to be turned into a casino to whitewash drug money - and it's
apparently set up by a gang of dirty cop, led by none other than Spenser's
former partner Driscoll. So without having an actual plan, Spenser steals
a drug carrying van from the baddies, and before you know it, the baddies
kidnap Henry. In the finale, Spenser and Hawk storm the baddies' HQ with a
truck, thus putting most baddies out of action, and while Hawk
single-handedly takes out the foot soldiers, Spenser dukes it out with
Driscoll because ... well, I guess an finale isn't finale without two men
engaged in a fist fight playing alpha dog. Of course, everything ends
happily ... Now this is probably entertaining enough if you
shut off your brain and just lean back and maybe fast forward through the
plot segments to concentrate on the shoot-outs, fistfights and car chases
- which are competently put together though without any real panache.
Plotwise on the other hand, this film is lacking. First of all, the thing,
clocking up at 111 minutes, just tries to hit too many plotpoints, some of
which could have just as well been left out, which would have made the
film smoother going. The actual "case" Spenser's working on on
the other hand is not all that gripping, especially since Spenser's
investigation is disappointingly linear. But the main problem with the
film is Spenser himself, as he's not allowed even the hint of a character
arc: He's a good guy right from the beginning, he was "doing the
right thing" when he beat up his captain, he was accepting his jail
time for it, and when he's out, he's equipped for everything thrown at
him, and he's constantly right in his assumptions with his gut feelings
being infallible, too. And that's the next problem with the film, Spenser
has no personal stakes in his own investigation, and he even lacks the
motive to pick it up in the first place - ok, he has known the dead cop 5
years ago, didn't think he was dirty of suicidal then, but 5 years
(and the lure of money) can change everybody. So even if Spenser wanted to
"do the right thing", the basis for this is slim, and even more
so for his associates, who risk their lives for something they're no part
of, that doesn't pay, and they can't even know they're on the right side
of the law. So it's really a lack of actual urgency that derails the whole
story. As for the whole feel of the movie, it hardly feels like a
self-contained story at all, just a pilot for a series, but really a pilot
of the old fashioned sort, for a cop show like in the 1980s, where a man
was a man while women were pretty (and maybe a little sassy), everything
was decided by a fistfight, and the actual plot was always secondary as
long as it was good vs evil. Now these shows seem outdated by the 2020s,
and for a good reason, and so does this movie, actually ...
|
|
|