Contraband Review

13th Mar 2012

So Marky Mark is back on screens, this time as a smuggler back for one more job to help bail out a relative who is in deep doodoo with the local thugs.

This involves putting together a small team and heading off on a ship to buy and retrieve certain “goods” for the black market in order to pay off a debt, and perhaps make a bit of change along the way.

Wahlberg manages to do more than merely whisper his way through a part and is engaging as a wiser, yet still in the game, family man who takes on the burden brought to him. The mission itself is the best part of the film – taking slight detours along the way as all sorts of problems occur. It does bend the rules a bit too much when coincidence and contrivance get in the way, but if you are in it for a bit of a thrill then it’s fun enough. In fact the more upbeat and fun parts of the film is obviously where you find most of the joy.

The harder and more character driven aspects of the plot are where the film starts to get a bit flabby. Wahlberg is ably assisted in the acting department by the always reliable Ben Foster and Giovanni Ribisi in character roles.

The twists along the way are partly given away by the typecasting, but it has to be said the cast do their best with what they are given. Ribisi in particular is given a character that allows him to do the kooky yet dangerous role he tinkered with in the past. Foster on the other hand gets more of an internal role to play, but continues to impress in another supporting role.

Kate Beckinsale sadly is lumbered with the more underdeveloped role. True she gets to partake in part of the plot, but suffers along the way in a typically underwritten role for a women stuck in a man’s world. It’s a shame that an actress who usually is leading most of the projects she works on should end up with such a flimsy part (or perhaps ended up mainly on the cutting room floor).

Interestingly the director, Baltasar Kormákur, actually produced and starred in the Icelandic original Reykjavík-Rotterdam. I haven’t seen the original, but this US remake did reek in places (especially the ending) of what changes may have been made along the way.

The film isn’t quite as tight as it could by, but is directed well enough for this to be an enjoyable if forgettable night out at the cinema.