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Movie Review | 'Contraband'

Not Quite an Honest Day’s Work

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By Manohla Dargis

• Jan. 12, 2012

The absurdity of the story in the largely thrill-free thriller “Contraband,” its hairpin twists and outrageous coincidences, may keep even hungry action fans away. That’s too bad because the story doesn’t matter. (It rarely does.) If anything, the film’s adherence to implausibility as a defining narrative principle — a reliably winning Mark Wahlberg plays a New Orleans super-smuggler on a fast boat to Panama who faces a wolf, an armored truck and a drip painting — is part of its low-key kick, as is the director Baltasar Kormakur’s fondness for industrial landscapes.

From the way Mr. Kormakur initially shoots New Orleans, the camera tracing circles in the night sky, it looks as if he didn’t want to come down to earth. He does soon enough, though, where he starts busily putting the numerous pieces into place. Mr. Wahlberg’s smuggler, Chris Farraday, has gone legitimate for the sake of his family and now works in security. But you know how it is in the movies: Just when a guy thinks he’s out , they pull him back in. And so it is for Chris, who’s forced back into his old criminal ways to save his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), from a local gangster, Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi, greased and tattooed).

There’s more, including Chris’s wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), a hairdresser whose bleach job and visible roots probably mean to suggest that this is one tough chick, even if she’s played by the brittle, patrician Ms. Beckinsale. Kate and Chris don’t make sense as a couple, or rather Ms. Beckinsale and Mr. Wahlberg don’t, but it hardly matters, because Chris has soon shipped off to Panama. Andy has dumped a bunch of coke during an aborted run for some baddies, and now it’s up to Chris to pay off the debt by buying funny money in Panama. As Chris and a band of co-conspirators do their stuff at sea, Kate finds refuge with his friend and ex-partner, Sebastian (Ben Foster).

“Contraband” is based on “ Reykjavik-Rotterdam ,” a 2008 Icelandic film directed by Oskar Jonasson that starred and was produced, in part, by Mr. Kormakur. (Mr. Kormakur’s credits as a director include “101 Reykjavik.”) One nice thing about Mr. Kormakur’s approach in “Contraband” is that he largely steers clear of the usual New Orleans visual signifiers, avoiding trees draped in ghostly Spanish moss and all the Big Easy rest. Instead, working with the cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, he goes high and low, shifting between street-level grunge and the city from high above, sweeping across the gaudily lighted night and eerily belching smokestacks. The scenes set at the New Orleans port and on the ship are especially atmospheric, an ode to the heavy-metal beauty of shipping containers.

Whether he’s slowing down time or ignoring its rules altogether, Mr. Kormakur’s eccentric pacing brings its own dividends, as does what really gets him going in the film. Time can seem to stand still when Chris is on the ship, nosing around its snaking corridors and burning through a wall to make a secret hole for the goods he hopes to smuggle.

Part of what interests Mr. Kormakur clearly isn’t just telling another American bad-boy success story — the dark side of the Horatio Alger rags-to-riches trajectory that’s long been manna to the movies — but also showing men at work. When Andy asks Chris if he’s happy to be smuggling again, Chris’s face lights up. I love it, he says with a wild smile. Here, then, is that rare sight: an American working-class man, happy on the job.

“Contraband” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Gun, vehicular and concrete violence.

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Contraband: film review.

Mark Wahlberg stars as a retired smuggler who is forced back into the game to pay off his brother-in-law's debt and protect his family.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Contraband Film Still - H 2011

The gritty style only accentuates the increasingly far-fetched dramatics in Contraband , an involving, atmospherically grungy mid-register thriller. The central device of a retired criminal being forced back into the game for a final job is recycled from countless previous films and TV shows, while some key climactic developments feel variously forced and/or simplistically achieved. But the lead role of a working class former smuggler who dirties his hands again to save his family fits Mark Wahlberg like a glove and there’s enough punch and rough stuff here to make this Universal release a moderate success domestically and better than that overseas.

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A life based on ill-gotten gains is par for the course for the Farraday clan; while old Pop stews in the slammer, son Chris (Wahlberg) remains a legend even though he now runs an alarm installation company and his dimwit brother-in-law Andy ( Caleb Landry Jones ) triggers the new round of trouble by dumping a bunch of drugs into the sea just as he’s about to be nailed on a cargo ship. There are so many Irish mugs running around here you’d think we’re in Boston but it’s actually New Orleans, a major port for all manner of substances coming in from Latin America.

The Bottom Line Gloomily atmospheric thriller of smugglers shuttling between New Orleans and Panama is both absorbing and contrived.

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Unfortunately, the lost stash was intended for Tim Briggs, a crazed, trigger-happy lunatic played by Giovanni Ribisi in such a wigged-out manner that it suggests the actor is advertising himself for any role (if there is any) Nicolas Cage declines. Briggs demands instant satisfaction for the debt, so threateningly so that Chris realizes he has no choice but to pull a job himself, and quick.

This one, too, will involve a smuggling operation aboard a transport ship, this one bound for Panama, where Chris arranges top pick up a massive amount of counterfeit American currency. With best pal Danny ( Lukas Haas ) and the questionable Andy, who’s older sister Kate ( Kate Beckinsale ) is Chris’s wife, the old pro signs on to a vessel commanded by a stern captain (an amusing G.K. Simmons ) with less than sweet feelings for Chris’s notorious dad. With help of old accomplices, Chris sets everything in place for the return trip, which will involve hiding the sheets of counterfeit bills from the captain as well as from customs authorities.

Panama is seldom seen in major films, so sequences featuring the canal, the soaring new skyline and reeking slums impart welcome color and visual interest. It is also here, however, where the plotting of first-time screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski and the sequence timing worked out by director Baltasar Kormakur get more than a little hairy, not to mention overly convenient. After a meeting with a drug lord ( Diego Luna ) goes awry, the Americans’ escape seems unconvincingly easy, just as the motivating incident is outlandishly coincidental. On top of it all, what Chris pulls off ashore is far too involved to have fit into the very short period of time before the ship is due to sail again; a sense of urgency is one thing, but winding the clock too tightly can break the spring, which more or less happens here.

Back home, more dramaturgic problems await, as old ghosts come back to haunt Chris’s best friend Sebastian ( Ben Foster ), who’s supposed to be looking after his pal’s wife and two boys but does so in a way that would tick off most husbands.

VIDEO: Mark Wahlberg Plays a Father on a Mission in ‘Contraband’ Trailer

Contraband is based on a little-seen 2008 Icelandic suspenser called Reykjavik-Rotterdam written by Arnaldur Indridason and Oskar Jonasson , director by the latter and produced by and starring Kormakur, whose debut feature, the madly original Reykjavik 101, arguably remains his best film. Despite the Gulf of Mexico settings, the new film, which is largely set at night, retains a certain Nordic gloom; the visual scheme worked out with cinematographer Barry Ackroyd is dominated by glum grays and blues, although the camerawork remains alert and alive to the alarming events that punctuate the characters’ lives with all-too-frequent regularity.

Kormakur’s unvarnished style on the one hand comes as a welcome change from both the slicker Hollywood norm and the more mannered antics of some young directors. At the same time, however, the images’ grubby honesty not only keep the film’s temperature on the low side, but also make the overt manipulations of the story appear even more artificial than they might have otherwise. Kormakur set out to make a thriller with a semblance of a real-life backdrop and succeeded up to a point, but the grit and pulp are like oil and water here.

Conveying Chris’s family commitment and professional toughness with equal conviction, Wahlberg provides the film with a solid center. Looney is in full supply thanks not only to Ribisi but to Foster, Luna and Jones, while Beckinsale, her innate classiness calibrated down a few notches, has little to do but be supportive, worried and, eventually, besieged. In just three scenes, William Lucking , as Chris’s father, creates an indelible picture of a defeated but still cagey old school Irish-American crim.

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Contraband (2012)

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A reasonably swift and effective reworking of the 2008 thriller "Reykjavik-Rotterdam."

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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Heads get smashed , kids are terrorized and a Jackson Pollock painting takes plenty of abuse in the scuzzy B-movie world of “ Contraband ,” a reasonably swift and effective reworking of the 2008 thriller “Reykjavik-Rotterdam.” Ditching its predecessor’s Nordic chill to focus on a sun-baked New Orleans-Panama City smuggling run, this solid if disposable genre exercise maintains a hard-driving line of action and a commitment to one-damned-thing-after-another storytelling that carries it past any number of narrative speedbumps and preposterous detours. Canny star vehicle for Mark Wahlberg should deliver the theatrical and ancillary goods for Universal.

Directed in a rough-and-ready handheld style by Icelandic multihyphenate Baltasar Kormakur (“Jar City”), “Contraband” reps an unusual case of a foreign-born filmmaker helming the American remake of a movie he previously produced and toplined (“Reykjavik-Rotterdam” was directed by Oskar Jonasson). Working from a mechanically efficient screenplay by tyro Aaron Guzikowski , Kormakur wastes little time setting up the circumstances that compel former world-class smuggler Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) to accept the thrill of one last job.

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A blue-collar Louisianan who’s long since settled down with his wife, Kate ( Kate Beckinsale ), and their two kids, Chris is pulled back to the dark side by Kate’s idiot kid brother, Andy ( Caleb Landry Jones ), who botches his own smuggling operation and consequently runs afoul of a local dope dealer (Giovanni Ribisi). With no legal means of raising the dough to bail out his brother-in-law, Chris assembles a small team to board a Panama City-bound container ship and run counterfeit bills back to New Orleans, leaving his family in the care of his longtime buddy, Sebastian (Ben Foster).

Intrigue mounts as Chris and his cohorts, passing themselves off as shipworkers under the nose of the rightly suspicious captain ( J.K. Simmons ), stay barely one step ahead of discovery and capture. Once the men reach Panama and things go as wrong as they possibly can, Kormakur orchestrates a succession of impossible risks and hairsbreadth escapes, including a violent heist run by a thug from Chris’ past (played by a greasy Diego Luna) and several bit players who yell, wave guns and keel over right on cue.

Getting the money to the ship on time becomes a crazed exercise in creative multitasking, and despite the routine nature of the mayhem, the setpieces generate momentum not only through editor Elisabet Ronalds’ shrewd pacing and cross-cutting, but through the picture’s mildly amusing attitude toward its own beat-the-clock logistics. While the Panama-lensed portion offers no downtime with which to establish a real sense of place, the local tourism board seems unlikely to embrace the national image presented here, so pervasive and unremitting is the atmosphere of grungy, violent depravity.

That overwhelming mood of corruption and criminality extends to the Louisiana-set scenes: Chris refuses to smuggle cocaine but, as he soon learns, those close to him aren’t nearly so virtuous. The film’s attempts to wring emotional drama from the spectacle of the endangered Farraday family often tilt into outright risibility, most disturbingly with regard to Beckinsale’s Kate; the filmmakers were clearly enamored enough with the image of her head being slammed against a wall that they opted to use it twice.

Fans of thuggish showboating will get more than their fill from the ensemble here: Though they share no screentime, Ribisi (only slightly less out-there than he was in the recent “The Rum Diary”) and Luna seem to be dueling for the title of most menacing facial hair; Foster gets ample opportunity to unleash his inner hothead; and David O’Hara brings his Scottish brogue to the role of a lofty Louisiana crime boss. That leaves Wahlberg to stand up to all of them as the principled man of action, and he carries the picture with ease and low-key charm in a role that slyly takes advantage of his own bad-boy-made-good persona.

The lean but muscular production is most impressive in its scenes aboard the nearly 900-foot-long S.S. Bellatrix (for interiors) and a 325-foot-long vessel (exteriors), as Barry Ackroyd ‘s camera skillfully maneuvers its way through claustrophobic quarters and around shipping containers. Clinton Shorter’s music supplies pulsing accompaniment.

• Production: A Universal release presented in association with Relativity Media of a Working Title production in association with Blueeyes/Leverage/Closest to the Hole Prods. Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Baltasar Kormakur, Stephen Levinson, Mark Wahlberg. Executive producers, Liza Chasin, Evan Hayes, Bill Johnson. Directed by Baltasar Kormakur. Screenplay, Aaron Guzikowski, based on the film "Reykjavik-Rotterdam" written by Arnaldur Inridason, Oskar Jonasson.
• Crew: Camera (color, widescreen), Barry Ackroyd; editor, Elisabet Ronalds; music, Clinton Shorter; production designer, Tony Fanning; art director, Dennis Bradford; set decorator, Cindy Lajeunesse; costume designer, Jenny Eagan; sound (SDDS/Dolby Digital/Datasat), Pud Cusack; re-recording mixer, Chris Burdon; special effects coordinator, William Casey Pritchett; visual effects supervisors, Aron Hjartarson, Dadi Einarsson; visual effects, stunt coordinator, Darrin Prescott; assistant director, Michele Ziegler; second unit director, Prescott; second unit camera, Igor Meglic; casting, Sheila Jaffe. Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Los Angeles, Jan. 10, 2012. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 110 MIN.
• With: Chris Farraday - Mark Wahlberg Kate Farraday - Kate Beckinsale Sebastian Abney - Ben Foster Tim Briggs - Giovanni Ribisi Andy - Caleb Landry Jones Gonzalo - Diego Luna Capt. Camp - J.K. Simmons With: David O'Hara, William Lucking. (English, Spanish dialogue)

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Drama , Mystery/Suspense

Content Caution

In Theaters

• January 13, 2012
• Mark Wahlberg as Chris Farraday; Kate Beckinsale as Kate Farraday; Caleb Landry Jones as Andy; Giovanni Ribisi as Tim Briggs; Ben Foster as Sebastian Abney; Lukas Haas as Danny Raymer; J.K. Simmons as Captain; William Lucking as Bud Farraday

Home Release Date

• April 24, 2012
• Baltasar Kormákur

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

Houdini had nothing on Chris Farraday.

In his glory days, the superstar smuggler could move contraband—drugs, counterfeit money, Ferraris—with a magical aplomb that would turn David Copperfield green with envy.

Those days, however, are long gone. These days, the New Orleans native is just trying to make an honest living selling and installing security systems to bring home the bacon for his pretty wife, Kate, and their two young sons. Even when old “associates” hint that they’d pay well for the ex-smuggler’s services, he’s not interested.

But his shady past once again becomes his present when Chris’ young nephew, Andy, botches a contraband job of his own. Andy, who’s working on a shipping freighter, dumps a big bag of cocaine overboard when customs officials come to call.

Andy’s dealer, a slimy underworld type named Tim Briggs, is none to happy about that, killing Andy’s partner and threatening to do the same to him.

Enter Uncle Chris. “I’ll get you the money in a month,” he promises Briggs. “Two weeks,” Briggs says, adding that if he fails, Kate and the kids will get added to the casualty list.

And just like that Chris Farraday is back in the smuggling business, assembling a crew and posing as a worker on a freighter headed to Panama City. The plan? Buy a pallet of counterfeit cash from a Central American crime lord, sneak it back onto the ship, head home and pay Andy’s debt.

Simple. What could possibly go wrong?

How about … everything.

Positive Elements

Chris visits his father in prison. Dad, who was also a smuggler, says that the proudest moment of his life was the day Chris left off smuggling and launched a legitimate, successful business. And it’s clear that getting married and having two sons has played a big part in Chris’ desire to clean up his act.

In the abstract, Chris’ fierce protectiveness of Andy and his own family is a good thing. And to his credit, I suppose, he says he won’t smuggle drugs; instead dabbling in counterfeit cash. Better yet, and unlike the vast majority of films in this genre, Contraband does not end with Chris exacting mortal revenge on his family’s tormenters. Instead of winding up in a coffin or at the bottom of a river, the film’s two worst offenders end up in … prison.

Spiritual Elements

A man at an AA meeting talks about how he’s learned to “let go and let God.” Kate wears a cross.

Sexual Content

Kate also wears shirts that are low-cut. She and Chris kiss on several occasions and dance suggestively at a wedding reception. We see them cuddling in bed once, with him shirtless and her wearing a camisole. Another man forcibly and repeatedly tries to kiss Kate. There’s a threat of rape.

Violent Content

Violence is the currency of Contraband . The scene with the highest body count comes after Chris is forced by an upstart Panamanian crime lord—more or less at gunpoint—into participating in a heist of an armored truck. Chris’ role? Driving a van in front of the truck to get it to stop. The truck does stop … after smashing into Chris. The kingpin’s goons immediately open fire on the truck’s occupants.

Explosives hurl a guy across a parking lot. Chris’ partner, Danny, dumps a body out of their van as they drive through Panama City. Chris administers several savage beatdowns to Briggs that include punches and body slams, and leave the baddie visibly bloodied. Another similarly intense fistfight involves Chris shoving a guy’s head repeatedly into a desk and walls.

When the drug runners come for Kate, they run her through the wringer. She’s threatened. And then she’s brutally manhandled, with the threat of rape hanging in the air as Briggs puts a gun in her face. Trying to escape the unwanted (and drunken) sexual advances of another man, Kate is whacked in the head with a door and knocked to the floor. Thinking she’s dead, her assailant wraps her in a plastic sheet and drops her into a rebar-laced concrete form at a construction site. (Chris rescues her just as concrete begins pouring over her.) Briggs crashes his truck into the hair salon where Kate works, then grabs her head and shoves her into a mirror, lacerating her forehead badly.

The two young Farraday boys are held at gunpoint, and shots are fired both to scare them and in response to one of them pushing a gun away from his face.

Briggs rams Andy’s car, triggering serious injury and a fatality. Thinking Andy has betrayed him, Chris beats his friend severely until Andy can tell him the truth about what happened.

Crude or Profane Language

At least 135 f-words. Upwards of 50 s-words. Jesus’ and God’s names are taken in vain four or five times each (the latter paired twice with “d‑‑n.”). The c-word is uttered once. There are about 25 instances of “a‑‑,” “a‑‑hole,” “b‑‑ch,” “d‑‑n,” “h‑‑‑” and “p‑‑‑.” Vulgar references are made to male and female anatomy.

Drug and Alcohol Content

As noted, the plot is driven by Andy’s desperate decision to toss 10 pounds of cocaine into the ocean when customs officials board his ship. Later, Briggs manipulates Andy (by threatening the Farraday children’s lives) into securing four or five large bricks of coke. We see Briggs and his lackeys slicing the bricks open and sampling the product.

A friend of Chris’ attends an AA meeting, then falls off the wagon and orders a Jack at a bar. He later snorts cocaine, and we see him passed out, surrounded by beer bottles. He drives after drinking.

Several other scenes picture people drinking as well, one at a wedding reception and several more at a bar. The guys on the ship frequently drink beer. Several characters smoke.

Other Negative Elements

Chris’ elaborate scheme to smuggle counterfeit currency back into America obviously involves lies and subterfuge piled upon even more lies and subterfuge. It’s not much of a surprise, then—morally at least—that one of Chris’ allies ultimately double-crosses him. Another key character, despite giving lip service to his distaste of smuggling, shows himself to be a man who can be bought.

Mark Walberg’s latest actioner is representative of the kind of projects he gravitates toward. Which is to say, gritty, violent and profane stories decorated with a veneer of redemption.

In the case of Contraband , that veneer comes in the form of a reformed criminal-turned-family-man who’s forced to do one last smuggling job for an ostensibly noble reason.

In a lengthy interview with the website irishecho.com , Walhberg, who also produced this film, talked about why he can relate to Chris Farraday. “In this movie, my character’s no angel,” he said. “He’s on the wrong side of the law as well, but he’s doing it for the right reason. He’s doing it to protect and provide for his family. And the other guys in the film are worse than me—and they’re not as likable. But those are the kinds of guys I like to root for. Those are the kinds of guys I can identify with. I could try to pull off the squeaky-clean thing, but I don’t necessarily think that’s my cup of tea.”

And squeaky clean this film certainly isn’t.

F-words fly more frequently than bullets and fists—and that’s saying something. Chris’ onscreen wife, played by Kate Beckinsale, is savagely assaulted several times, more so even than Chris himself. Those scenes are hard to watch. And I question what, exactly, they add to the storyline. After all, we already know Briggs is a bad guy who’s willing to do anything to make a buck. Even hurt or kill Chris’ family. Do we really need to see him stick a gun in a woman’s face or ram her head into a mirror to underscore the point?

You can probably guess how I’d answer that question.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Walhberg talked about his own journey from being an angry, drug-addicted bad boy to a devoted family man who’s now serious about his Catholic faith.

“I always talk about the things I think I need to be good at, and that, first and foremost, is to be a good servant to God and my faith, a good husband, a good father, a good son, a good friend, brother, neighbor. Those are the important things I focus on. If I succeed in business and fail at being a parent or husband, then it was all for nothing. Then I’ve failed.”

I appreciate the sentiment. And I don’t question the sincerity of Mark’s faith. But I do scratch my head a bit when it comes to figuring out how being “a good servant to God” connects with telling stories that journey as far into harsh R-rated territory as this one does.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Common sense media reviewers.

Lots of suspense, violence, language in smuggling thriller.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

There's some teamwork, with characters needing to

The hero is a trustworthy, reliable family man. Bu

The worst violence happens when a vicious gangster

A loving married couple kisses and says "I love yo

Almost constant swearing, with either "f--k" or "s

The main character refuses to smuggle drugs, but t

Parents need to know that Contraband is an intense action thriller about a former smuggler (played by Mark Wahlberg) who's forced to go back into business to protect his family. Expect distressing violence: The bad guys beat up and nearly sexually assault the main character's wife, as well as point guns at…

Positive Messages

There's some teamwork, with characters needing to solve a dangerous problem quickly, but they use illegal and immoral means to do so. The main characters generally show empathy, but only to people already in their little circle; others get the opposite treatment.

Positive Role Models

The hero is a trustworthy, reliable family man. But he resorts to illegal activities, violence, and trickery in a pinch. He also swears nonstop.

Violence & Scariness

The worst violence happens when a vicious gangster threatens the main character's wife and kids while he's away. The gangster beats up the wife, and a henchman pulls a gun on the kids (who are about 8 or 10). Later, the wife is nearly sexually assaulted and then beaten further; she's knocked into unconsciousness. Also one major scene of shooting and killing, with lots of blood and several dead bodies, plus some hand-to-hand fighting and a few car crashes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A loving married couple kisses and says "I love you." Some brief innuendo.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Almost constant swearing, with either "f--k" or "s--t" said literally every couple of minutes. Other, less frequently heard words include "p---y," "ass,""c--t," "a--hole," "hell," "goddamn," and "bitch."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

The main character refuses to smuggle drugs, but the bad guys make their living smuggling cocaine. Viewers see big sealed bags of it, and characters occasionally snort some. A secondary character is a recovering alcoholic. He attends an AA meeting but falls off the wagon and drinks whisky in a bar. Characters are also seen drinking beer at a wedding, and minor characters are seen smoking cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Contraband is an intense action thriller about a former smuggler (played by Mark Wahlberg ) who's forced to go back into business to protect his family. Expect distressing violence: The bad guys beat up and nearly sexually assault the main character's wife, as well as point guns at his tween kids. There's also fighting, shooting, killing, and blood. Language is another major issue, with characters saying either "f--k" or "s--t" literally every couple of minutes. The bad guys smuggle cocaine, and viewers see huge bricks of it; characters are also seen snorting some. A secondary character is a recovering alcoholic who falls off the wagon. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 3 parent reviews

Keeps you wanting more.

Too much terrible language, what's the story.

In New Orleans, Chris Farraday ( Mark Wahlberg ) is a brilliant former smuggler who's gone straight for the sake of his wife ( Kate Beckinsale ) and two sons. But when his wife's younger brother (Caleb Landry Jones) gets in trouble with a local thug ( Giovanni Ribisi ), Chris must go back into business with his best friend, Sebastian ( Ben Foster ). Their plan is to ship out to Panama, pick up a huge, truck-sized pile of counterfeit bills -- Chris refuses to smuggle drugs -- and bring it back. Unfortunately absolutely everything goes wrong, from bad bills to a temperamental drug lord ( Diego Luna ) and a betrayal.

Is It Any Good?

CONTRABAND's plot (remade from a 2008 Icelandic thriller) is pretty creaky, but Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur's execution is scrappy and energetic. The movie begins at ground level, with an authentically urban, working-class feel around Chris; it's similar in this regard to the atmosphere of The Fighter . Using this as a basis, Kormakur very simply keeps raising the stakes.

The story grows more and more absurd, but each new wrinkle generates more suspense. Kormakur isn't particularly good at subtle things (like revealing a secret twist or creating a moment of discovery), and the action could have been cleaner and sharper, but most of the movie is based around big events, and they're very satisfying. It's more about guts than brains, along with generating supreme tension. The strong cast also includes J.K. Simmons as a cranky ship's captain and Lukas Haas as a nervous helper.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Contraband 's violence . Is it suspenseful or gory? Is it necessary to the story?

The characters use questionable methods to accomplish their goals. What message does that send to viewers? Do the ends ever justify the means?

At the end of the movie, the main characters are left with the promise of great -- albeit ill-gotten -- riches. Do you think they'll find happiness?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 13, 2012
• On DVD or streaming : April 24, 2012
• Cast : Ben Foster , Kate Beckinsale , Mark Wahlberg
• Director : Baltasar Kormakur
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 110 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence, pervasive language and brief drug use
• Last updated : January 4, 2024

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Mark Wahlberg, After One Last Haul In 'Contraband'

Scott Tobias

One Last Job: A reformed smuggler (Mark Wahlberg, left) gets back in the game to save a family member, enlisting an old friend (Ben Foster) in a heist movie adapted from the Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam . Patti Perret/Universal Pictures hide caption

• Director: Baltasar Kormakur
• Genre: Crime Thriller
• Running Time: 110 minutes

Rated R for violence, pervasive language and brief drug use

With: Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, J.K. Simmons

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'Let's Work Something Out'

Credit: Universal Pictures

'No More Options'

There are good movies, there are bad movies, and then there are movies that your parents rent two or three times before realizing 20 minutes in that they've seen them before.

Contraband , the mediocre new Mark Wahlberg thriller, falls squarely in the latter category — not because it's risible by any means, but because nothing about it lingers, not even the sulfuric stench of a bum scene or a particularly hammy performance. Its video box (or Netflix JPEG) will no doubt have its appeals — Wahlberg's soft-on-the-inside glare, scruffy men with guns, the title font of an '80s Sylvester Stallone vehicle — but don't be fooled. You've seen this movie before, even if you haven't seen this movie specifically.

In another example of Hollywood's desperation to snap up any successful properties, no matter how marginal, Contraband is an Americanized version of Reykjavik-Rotterdam , a 2008 Icelandic hit starring Baltasar Kormakur. Those who frequent international film festivals might recognize Kormakur as the director of such eccentric little slot-fillers as 101 Reykjavik , The Sea and Jar City , and he steps behind the camera again here on a much larger production. Perhaps having Kormakur aboard promised some continuity — because surely what works for Icelandic audiences will work for American ones, too — but his quirky sensibility gets lost in the rigors of a large-scale thriller.

Still, forgettable movies are rarely bad movies, and Contraband has a diverting kick once its plot finally ambles into motion. Missing the belligerent edge that marks his great performances in films like The Departed , Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees , Wahlberg settles too easily into the role of Chris Farraday, a reformed New Orleans ex-con who gets dragged back into the smuggling business. After Farraday's screw-up brother-in-law (Caleb Landry Jones) gets pinched running cocaine on a freighter, local baddie Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) threatens to kill him if he can't come up with the money fast.

Leaving his legitimate home-security business behind, Farraday takes responsibility for the debt and gathers his old criminal buddies for one last job smuggling "funny money" from Panama City back to New Orleans aboard a shipping boat. Meanwhile, Briggs tightens the screws back home by terrorizing Farraday's wife (Kate Beckinsale) and two children, who in Farraday's absence have only his recovering-alcoholic best friend (Ben Foster) to look after their safety.

Once the action shifts to Panama City, Contraband finds a nice groove, eking out plenty of suspense as Farraday and the gang scramble to retrieve the payload before the ship weighs anchor. Kormakur and screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski keep throwing one obstacle after another in their way — including an entirely separate heist — while simultaneously turning up the heat on Farraday's family back home. The raised stakes offer a welcome jolt of energy and introduce a tone of lighthearted derring-do that's absent from most of the movie.

But aside from Ribisi's typically bizarre turn — his mush-mouthed Cajun accent turns every line into jambalaya — nothing in Contraband pops like it should. There's a modicum of local color to its New Orleans and Panama City locales, but not quite enough. There's a funny, ingratiating Ocean's Eleven camaraderie between Farraday and his associates, but not quite enough. There are twists and turns and death-defying scrapes, but not quite enough. Contraband is a film to be remembered, vaguely.

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10 classic kids books from the 90s that are still worth reading, the real reason palpatine's face changes in star wars: revenge of the sith, if you enjoy seeing modern action stars like wahlberg or jason statham in pulpy b-movie flicks, then contraband will be a suitable distraction..

Everything about Contraband can best be summed up in the word "average." There's nothing too great about this B-movie action/heist flick, but nothing too terrible about it, either. While it is overly ambitious in some respects, it ultimately lands in that middle ground of mindless (and instantly forgettable) genre entertainment, despite its shortcomings.

Mark Wahlberg channels his usual soft-spoken tough guy screen persona as Chris Farraday, a former master smuggler who has settled down into a law-abiding life as a working dad and loving husband to his gorgeous wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale). When Kate's little brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) is forced to dump a shipment of cocaine during a high-stakes smuggling run, he lands himself, Chris, and Kate on the hook of local thug Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi).

Chris' attempt to negotiate with Briggs is...less than successful, leaving him just two weeks to get back into the smuggling game and come up with the money owed to Briggs. With help from his best buddy Sebastian (Ben Foster), Chris rounds up a small crew of deckhands to help him pull off a scheme involving counterfeit bills waiting to be smuggled out of Panama. Of course things don't go as planned, and there are a few of the standard heist film twists and double-crosses that leave Chris and Co. in tight spots and facing long odds.

For a glorified B-movie, Contraband has an impressive lineup of actors. Foster and Ribisi are accomplished character acting talents, and their respective characters are definite standouts (especially Ribisi's high-pitched drawling thug). Caleb Landry Jones and Luke Haas are both young actors gaining notice, though they're mostly window dressing here; Kate Beckinsale, on the other hand, is almost too hot to be convincing as the blue-collar Mrs. of a seasoned criminal. At this point most people know whether they like Mark Wahlberg's bad boy persona or not, and he's definitely playing to type in this film. Other familiar faces like J.K. Simmons ( Spider-Man ), Diego Luna ( Y Tu Mama Tambien ) and Sons of Anarchy star William Lucking all pop up here and there for some brief (but welcome) bit roles.

Contraband is, in fact, the American remake of the Icelandic film Reykjavik-Rotterdam , and while I haven't seen that film to know for sure, the script for this American version (adapted by Aaron Guzikowski) tries to do too much with some of the subplots and supporting characters - which would've been more of a pronounced distraction if director Baltasar Kormakur (who produced the Icelandic version) and his team of editors hadn't cut them down to size.

The first act of  Contraband  is awkwardly clipped - almost as if Kormakur had shot longer scenes but had to truncate them to keep things moving (a choice I wholeheartedly support). The main narrative unfolds at a nice pace without dragging too much - though, as stated, the moments of subplot development later in the film are often cumbersome, disjointed, and never feel effective or necessary.

The other odd thing about the film is that it doesn't really offer a whole lot of any one element: for an action film, there's very little  action  (basically one shootout/chase sequence), and for a heist film, it's not particularly inventive or clever in its twists and surprises (most of them you can see coming way in advance). The plot is pretty much a standard point A to point B to point C progression, while we watch Wahlberg and his blue-collar cohorts breeze through the complicated process of international smuggling with such ease that it's hard to suspend your disbelief for too long. Look for plot holes with any kind of critical eye and you will find many.

However, for all its mediocrity, most of the audience interested in  Contraband  will likely be satisfied with what the film delivers: Mark Wahlberg looking tough, acting tough, and delivering choice one-liners like " You think you're the only guy with a gun ?" or " I'm coming for you !"  Even though some of the subplots wedged into the second and third acts venture into darker and more serious dramatic territory, thankfully they aren't so much of a drag as to keep the film from ending on a fun (if not entirely plausible) note.

All things considered, if you enjoy seeing modern action stars like Wahlberg or Jason Statham in pulpy B-movie flicks, then Contraband will be a suitable distraction. Those with more discerning action movie palates should probably wait to catch this one on home video or basic cable.

Contraband is now playing in theaters everywhere.

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Contraband Movie Review

  Mark Wahlberg scores again with Contraband . Another Hit for Wahlberg By Todd A. Smith               Mark Wahlberg has done it again.  The rapper-turned-actor’s string of hit action films continue with the Contraband movie.             Before starting, let’s get the bad news out of the way before focusing on the good news.  The Contraband movie drags just a bit at the beginning while setting up the story line, but once the action heats up, the film kicks into another gear, and thankfully does not conclude with a formulaic and predictable ending.             The Contraband movie begins in New Orleans before shifting to Panama.  Wahlberg plays Chris, a talented smuggler who has gone legit in life with a home security company, a beautiful wife and two sons.  He initially followed in his father’s footsteps into a life of crime, but marriage and fatherhood has changed him and he tries to be the role model he never had to his brother-in-law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones).             While smuggling 10 bricks of cocaine into the United States, Andy’s boat is raided by customs agents and he follows criminal protocol by dumping the drugs into the ocean.  However, when drug lord Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) realizes his drugs have been lost, along with the money that would come from it, he gives Chris two weeks to come up with $700,000 or risk losing his relatives, including his wife and children.             Against his wife’s warning, Chris decides to smuggle counterfeit money in the United States in an effort to relieve Andy’s debt to Briggs and his crew.              What makes the Contraband movie good is that it does not become predictable like other similar movies.  It will keep you guessing throughout the film.  Who is friend and who is foe?  Who survives and who lives?  And who faces justice and who does not?             The action sequences are violent but very realistic.  Too often violent scenes in films end with very little damage, injury or casualties.  The Contraband movie remains realistic, even during the scenes of violence.             The Contraband movie also does a decent job of dealing with the true emotions of reluctant criminals.  Some criminals commit their crimes out of greed and some out of necessity.  The film does a good job of dealing with the anxiety people like Chris feel when they are desperately trying to live a legitimate life.  Furthermore, it effectively deals with the emotions that loved-ones have to deal with, when their family members are involved in a life of crime.             The Contraband movie also deals with acts of betrayal that accompany large amounts of money.  The old cliché says, “Money can’t buy love or friends” but it can surely turn your friends and family against you when greed is added to the equation.             Moreover, the key to a great crime film is character development.  When audience members are cheering for some characters, and cheering against other characters, then a film has done its job.  In the Contraband movie, you will find yourself cheering the failure of some characters and cheering the intelligence and cleverness of others.              And at the end of the day, audiences will be cheering Wahlberg and his successful run of action films; job well done sir.   REGAL RATINGS FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT THREE CROWNS=GOOD TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE ONE CROWN=POOR   Smith is publisher of Regal Black Men’s Magazine , a publication dedicated to the African American community.

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Contraband (United States/United Kingdom, 2012)

Contraband is the kind of thriller that offers just enough in the way of effective elements to assemble a two-minute trailer. When it comes to a 110-minute feature, however, the sketchiness of the plotting and the director's lack of sure-handedness sink the project. By their very nature, heist-oriented thrillers are intended to be erected upon a bedrock of contrivances, but a skilled director can obfuscate this reality and make the whole thing seem like one long, fun ride. Sadly, in the case of Contraband , the seams show. Either as a result of poor writing or sloppy editing, glaring plot holes are never plugged. The film's structure is haphazard, the energy level is low, the surprises are few, and the ending is far too clean for such a messy motion picture. In short, this is pretty much what we have come to expect of movies released in January (at least those that are not Oscar-hopeful holdovers from the previous year).

Contraband is remake of the Icelandic film Reykjavik-Rotterdam . This movie's director, Baltasar Kormakur, served as both producer and lead actor in the original, so there's a solid connection. While Kormakur brings a sense of offbeat humor to the proceedings, his handling of action sequences is suspect (they lack tension) and the story is frustratingly driven by characters doing moronic and short-sighted things. The screenplay could be smart, but it isn't. The pace is uneven; only on rare occasions is there a sense of urgency, and the "nick of time" ending seems like what it is: a bad cliché.

As Chris Farraday, Mark Wahlberg adopts his usual low-key persona. Unlike Matt Damon, who can ratchet it up for an action role, Wahlberg appears capable of only one level. Guided by a strong director, Wahlberg has shown impressive acting chops, but Kormakur is not the kind of filmmaker who can cull the best from his leading man. As a result, it's difficult to warm up to Chris, even though his backstory is one of redemption. He's a former smuggler who, for the sake of his loving wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and two children, has gone straight. Despite constant temptations to return to a life of crime, he stays on the right side of the law - until circumstances dictate that he backslide.

Chris' brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), who has remained in Chris' old business, dumps a load of drugs when his ship is boarded following an anonymous tip. The drug dealer, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), wants his money and, if he can't get it from Andy, he'll move onto Chris and Kate, extracting the payment in either dollars or blood. With the help of his best buddy, Sebastian (Ben Foster), Chris arranges to reunite his old crew and head to Panama to pick up a load of counterfeit $20s. But the transaction is not without problems and, back home in New Orleans, things start getting ugly as Briggs begins a campaign of intimidation.

Putting aside how little Wahlberg brings to Contraband , as least the size of his role fits an actor of his high profile. Kate Beckinsale, on the other hand, is shoehorned into a part that defines the term "underused." Like many actresses of a certain age, Beckinsale is finding it difficult to capture work of substance, so she appears in productions like this to pay the bills. She has little to do here that's interesting: she plays the dutiful wife, she is harassed by the drug dealer, and she is transformed into a plot device during the final act. Meanwhile, Giovanni Ribisi seems to be enjoying himself playing the bad guy. I never admired Ribisi much in the early portion of his career but, now that he has started taking more offbeat and challenging roles, he has reversed my opinion. He's easily the most enjoyable character in Contraband . (Although Diego Luna's wacko art-obsessed Panamanian gangster comes in a close second.)

Contraband delivers what it promises... barely. It is a story about reformed criminals being forced back into the game, friction with drug dealers, smuggling, and revenge, with the requisite betrayal thrown in. It isn't made with enough style or energy, however, to be consistently engaging and the various comeuppances lack the full-bodied satisfaction one hopes for when a bad guy goes down in something like this. The film is a little below mediocre but par for the course at this time of the year. It's a forgettable time-waster that will be seen more because of a lack of viable options at the multiplex than because it warrants an investment of anyone's time or money.

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Movie Review: ‘Contraband’

Did I miss a memo or something? When did casting agents start thinking that Mark Wahlberg was the go-to guy when they needed an intelligent schemer with an uncanny ability to see 10 steps ahead of everyone else? This is still the underwear model who left the Funky Bunch at the side of some Alabama truck stop, right?

Okay, whatever. I’m done with that now.

So, onto this January dumpage called Contraband . It’s about a world-class smuggler (Wahlberg) who’s given up the game to go legit and enjoy his wife ( Kate Beckinsale ) and kids. His dumbass brother-in-law screws the pooch (figuratively) and ends up dragging Wahlberg back into the game to save his life (less figuratively). Twists and turns are bound to be scripted, and audiences who don’t pay attention to ridiculously obvious foreshadowing and blatantly apparent camera shots might find themselves thinking some of the closing events are surprising. Anyone else dumb enough to be paying attention will just be waiting for the characters on-screen to follow through with the predictable setups.

One thing most people aren’t aware of is that this is actually a remake of the 2008 Icelandic film Reykjavik-Rotterdam . It starred Baltasar Kormákur in the lead role. His name is in the credits here again, only he’s moved behind the camera into the director’s chair. I never saw the original but seeing what the actor does with his own film, I’m not all that keen to find out. Putting aside amateurish camerawork, the overuse of extreme close-ups, and an attempt to make shooting out of focus artsy, it’s a shame Kormákur didn’t push the envelope of the story.

To that end, and be forewarned this paragraph is a bit spoiler-ish, the biggest problem (aside from the general lack of excitement) with Contraband is that there isn’t any tension to the film. There should be plenty of consequences for nearly every character, and yet it felt like every punch gets pulled. This is supposed to be a shady world of ne’er-do-wells, instead, it’s like smuggler’s patty cake.

Boiling it all down, if you really, really want to see Marky Mark plan a heist … and feel reasonably entertained … and you want that film to be a remake … try re-watching The Italian Job . It’ll be far cheaper, and it’s a better experience. If you’re somehow still curious about Contraband , wait for it to hit the free cable market. It probably won’t take that long, and while this is rated R, it’s almost entirely because of language and not because of thrilling action or violence. Adrenaline junkies should seek release elsewhere.

Contraband hits theaters on January 13, 2012 and is rated R for violence, pervasive language and brief drug use.

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The Just Cause Games are Becoming an Inevitably Gonzo Action Movie

Avalanche's open-world franchise is taking its particular brand of chaos to the silver screen..

Do you like action movies ? Do you like the ones where a bunch of crazy nonsense is happening that seems like it defies all the laws of physics? Do you like video games? Good news, all three of those itches are going to be scratched with an adaptation of the Just Cause games.

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Per the Hollywood Reporter , Universal’s picked up the rights to the open-world franchise and enlisted Blue Beetle’s Ángel Manuel Soto to direct. Action movie studio 87North will produce the film via Kelly McCormick and action guy David Leitch, coming off the heels of The Fall Guy from earlier in May. Also producing is Story Kitchen, a company that’s already involved in the recent live-action adaptations of Tomb Raider and Sonic the Hedgehog .

The Just Cause games center on Rico Rodriguez, a secret agent tasked with traveling to various islands and saving the people by overthrowing the current regime of whover’s in charge. Since 2006, the series has been well-liked, largely due to the sequels enabling players to create as much carnage as they can by destroying government property with whatever they’ve got on hand. The stories are cliche and not all that interesting, but the games make up for it by allowing players to wreak havoc and pull off some wild death-defying stunts with Rico’s handy grappling hook and wingsuit. If you can imagine a Mission Impossible game that doesn’t take itself all that seriously, that’s basically these games.

Interestingly, a movie adaptation was reportedly getting off the ground back in 2010 (the same year Just Cause 2 released), but nothing came of it. In 2017, Jason Momoa was tapped to play Rico in an adaptation from Atlas director Brad Peyton, which also never happened since at the point, the two were both individually pretty busy . After another false start in 2020, it looks like the stars have aligned for a movie to finally happen. Now if only there were a game along with it: the last entry was Just Cause 4 back in 2018, and Avalanche is currently working on the open-world co-op game Contraband for Xbox, which we haven’t really heard much about since its initial reveal in 2021.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

Movie Reviews

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Set in 1800s Italy and based on a true story, “Kidnapped” is so primally upsetting that you would think it would be unbearable to watch. But it proves intoxicating, at times nearly overwhelming, thanks to perfect casting, an economical and impassioned screenplay, and filmmaking overseen by 84-year-old cowriter-director  Marco Bellocchio , who might be one of the greatest living narrative filmmakers who is not usually recognized as such.

In 1857 in Bologna, a part of Italy that was then controlled by the Papal States , an infant Jewish boy named Edgardo Mortara is impulsively baptized by his family’s babysitter, a Catholic teenager. By the time the boy turns six, knowledge of the unauthorized ceremony reaches the local inquisitor Father Pier Gaetano Feletti ( Fabrizio Gifuni ). Feletti sends police to take the boy from his family, citing a Papal States policy forbidding Christians from being raised by members of other faiths. The Mortaras are told that the boy can remain with them if everyone in the household (including Edgardo’s six siblings) converts. Edgardo’s father Salomone "Momolo" ( Fausto Russo Alesi ) and mother Marianna ( Barbara Ronchi ) pick a third, agonizingly difficult path: let the boy be taken away and retain their household's religious and cultural identity while fighting church and state through the legal system and the newspapers, in hopes of returning Edgardo to his birth family and pulling the whole establishment down.

It's a seemingly impossible task. Time is not on the parents' side. The movie takes place over a sixteen year span. Viewers know not only that the wheels of justice turn slowly when they turn at all, but that human beings are psychologically complex organisms that don’t always do as desired or expected, and are malleable. Edgardo is raised within the orbit of Pope Pius IX ( Paolo Pierobon ) while his family visits him periodically. We see the child grow up in new circumstances and become acclimated to them (Edgardo is played by Enea Sala as a boy and Leonardo Maltese as a young adult). After an early period of emotional chaos in which Edgardo alternates dutiful attempts to adjust to his new life and impulsive acts of rebellion/rejection (there’s also an attempt to steal him back) he does eventually become a Catholic, and a devout one at that. (A pair of rhyming images shows little Edgardo hiding under his mother's skirts to escape the police early in the story, then later hiding under a priest's frock coat during a game of hide-and-seek.)

There aren’t many scenarios more fundamentally appalling than the forced separation of children from their parents. “Kidnapped” builds upon and complicates that sense of violation even as it keeps cutting back to the family pursuing justice. The movie also provokes philosophical questions that exist alongside the fundamentals without making them too academic and extinguishing their fire: What does one do when a kidnapped person says they don’t want to be rescued? If you try to pull them away from their adaptive circumstances anyway, against their will, is that kidnapping? 

“Kindapped” is also an astute study of power: how it’s acquired and maintained and exercised, and how poorly those who have gotten used to wielding it react after they wake up one morning and realize they’re about to lose at least some of what they’ve got. There’s no shortage of films about powerful organizations smashing individual families to pieces and the families trying to repair themselves and fight back, but few recent examples show the dynamics of oppression and resistance in such direct, non- denominational terms as "Kidnapped." The opening scenes of little Edgardo and his family dealing with representatives of the Church are upsetting not just because of what’s happening but because the representatives of the oppressors are, for the most part, soft-spoken rather than flamboyantly cruel. At times they seem almost embarrassed at having to enforce policies that their own organization devised and implemented. There are rules and laws, you see? And they have to be followed. No hard feelings. It’s nothing personal. 

Until it is: when a representative of a Jewish newspaper in Bologna gets an audience with the Pope and is essentially warned to knock it off, nearly as much attention is paid to the tone and presentation of the visitors’ statements as their substance. “Lower your voice and kneel down; have you forgotten whose presence you are in?” the Pope warns. Then he adds, “I could hurt you very badly. I could force you back into your hole. Do you remember when the ghetto gate was closed from dusk to dawn, or have you already forgotten?” When the tables are turned even slightly on Feletti by representatives of the (secular) legal system, he gets his back up at being challenged. “I would like to make clear that the decisions, the judgments of the Church, are not subject to any other authority of an inferior position,” he warns court officials who have come to interrogate him.

The movie depicts the 19th century Church as a corrupt, brutal, power-drunk organization that positioned itself as as a middleman between God and individuals in order to crush rival faiths, enforce patriarchy, guilt-trip most of the subjugated population into “donating” to them and obeying their edicts, and siphon off or steal material wealth and real estate. (Late in the movie, when it becomes clear that the Papal States are about to get smacked down by the secular government, the top bosses of the Church immediately begin discussing where to hide all the treasures they’ve amassed.) 

And yet not one of the frocked characters conducts himself onscreen as a mustache-twirling bad guy. They're shown mainly as bureaucrats in turned-around collars: company men. Pope Pius IX sometimes seems as if he’s about to turn into an especially hiss-able exception. But the way Pierobon plays him (with a childlike comportment and self-loathing undertone that evokes the late Ian Holm ) you get the sense that he’s not merely twisted by life among the super-powerful, but that he’s also got mental problems that will never be properly diagnosed.

All this material is presented by Bellocchio and his co-screenwriter Susanna Nicchiarelli (a director herself) not as a cooly observed case study in which bare facts are laid out, but something more in the spirit of a grand, tragic opera, or an epic movie melodrama from an earlier time that that would’ve been shot either in burnished black-and-white or feverish Technicolor, depending on the decade. Francesco Di Giacomo ’s cinematography seems to have been modeled on Old Masters like Rembrandt. There's a hint of Gordon Willis ’ work in the “Godfather” trilogy in the way that single-source lighting falls on clothing and faces. Fabio Massimo Capogrosso ’s busy, booming orchestral score helps unify a script that might have otherwise seemed too terse or schematic. It regularly reminds you of which side the movie is on (the “kidnapping, bullying and oppression are bad” side) even when "Kidnapped" is investing its most disturbing characters with complexity—and reminding you that just because the main players have been reduced to just a wee bit more than their plot functions in the interests of efficiency (the running time is two hours and change) doesn’t mean they aren’t full human beings. 

“Kidnapped” might turn out to be one of those films like the older classics it plainly models itself after, where, in the memory, you think of certain characters as richly detailed creations that you spent lots of time with, but they'd prove to have gotten just a few minutes’ total screen time if you sat in the dark with a stopwatch. The only thing I can say against it is that, its determination to get through it all as quickly and forcefully as possible, important part of the story happen offscreen, and other parts are confusing and the confusion is not always cleared up (though withholding the details of the early baptism until a courtroom scene near the end proves to be a masterstroke; it makes the entire tale seem even more tragic—and at the same time absurd). 

This has been a great year for movies so far, and "Kidnapped" is another work of substance and style, telling its story with immediacy and a palpable sense of anger even as it channels the work of past masters dating back decades, even centuries.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Kidnapped (2024)

134 minutes

Enea Sala as Edgardo Mortara bambino

Leonardo Maltese as Edgardo Mortara ragazzo

Paolo Pierobon as Papa Pio IX

Fausto Russo Alesi as Momolo Mortara

Barbara Ronchi as Marianna Mortara

Andrea Gherpelli as Angelo Padovani

• Marco Bellocchio
• Susanna Nicchiarelli

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