Wednesday 16 January 2013

Broken City (2013) Review by Shivom Oza - Wahlberg's Moment Of Reckoning

3.5/5 Stars

New York City finds itself in a pitiable state, as incumbent Mayor Nicholas Hostetler double-crosses and frames an ex-cop-turned-private-detective Billy Taggart, in order to regain his position in the upcoming elections.

With the superlative performances by the cast (including stalwarts such as Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones), a powerful, albeit meandering, screenplay, enchanting background music and a fairly engaging plot, 'Broken City' has all the makings of the perfect weekend entertainer.

Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is a former-cop-turned-private-eye. New York City mayoral elections are underway, and the cunning incumbent Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) is willing to do anything to keep his position by beating his rival Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper).

According to Nicholas, the people of New York City will elect anybody as the Mayor, but a man who has been cheated on by his partner. He suspects his wife, Cathleen Hostetler, of having an affair with somebody. He hires Billy to take photographs of his wife's partner.

Billy's got his own back-story. Seven years ago (before present day in the movie), he had shot dead Mikey Tavarez (Luis Tolentino), a man who raped and killed his girlfriend Natalie Barrow's (Natalie Martinez) younger sister. Now, while Billy gets away from being imprisoned, owing to the intervention of Nicholas, he has to return the favour. Nicholas makes it obligatory for Billy to say yes to his errand, for which he was willing to pay $50,000. Now, there are several twists and turns in the film, most of them being immensely fascinating. It would really spoil your experience if they are revealed. Let's just say that Billy is in for multiple rude shocks, while he goes about this easy-looking task.

The story is meandering, but at no point, are you flummoxed to the point of being disinterested. The film manages to engage you throughout its duration. The lovely background score forms a wonderful foil to the thrilling visuals. The dramatic scenes between Billy and Nicholas, Billy and his girlfriend Natalie, and, in particular, the election debate, are excellently played out. The performances by the cast, Russell, Wahlberg and Catherine, are beyond brilliant. Wahlberg, who can be safely termed as the lone protagonist, gives an effortless performance. A bit more humour in his character would have worked perfectly, though. Russell Crowe is brilliant as the conniving mayor and so is Catherine Zeta-Jones, in a short, yet significant role. The supporting cast does a wonderful job as well. The few drawbacks in the film are as follows; unnecessary back-story and not enough reasoning given for the twists. Yes, you could take as many leaps of faith as you wish to, but those looking for a flawless plot will be left a tad disappointed. For a debut feature film, director Allan Hughes has done a marvellous job. The best part about the film was that it has no black-and-white. All characters have shades of grey, and come with their own infirmities. That helps a lot in making the story believable.
 
This film mixes the following genres, Drama, Action and Thriller, perfectly. Don't miss it!

Shivom Oza

1 comment:

  1. Broken City had the potential to become a great suspense thriller. Instead it becomes a run of the mill movie. Two powerful actors Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones have been completely wasted in the movie. The movie moves around too many things instead of concentrating to remain a suspense thriller and director loses the plot completely.

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