When you look at the filmography of director John Hillcoat, it’s easy to see how he ended up at Triple 9. Making his career on glum, downtrodden features like The Road and The Proposition, Hillcoat‘s a director who likes to revel in human darkness. Triple 9 is a tome almost dedicated to the nihilism of his previous work, this time taking the form of dirty cops and the deep underbelly of gangland America. However, as well calculated as the film is, the pervasive darkness of the ensemble thriller is almost too intoxicating for its own good.
Fundamentally a heist movie, the greatest strength of Triple 9 is its action, which it wastes no time in showing off. Opening on the cusp of a bank robbery, Triple 9‘s choreography is very focused and coherent. Completely free of any kind of flash or want of justification, the violence is measured with a slight edge of unpredictability. Sure enough, the first stretch is nearly fatally sabotaged after one member of the squad gets cocky, leading to a new course of action and some dissension in the ranks. These early scenes are very emblematic of the feature as a whole – argumentative, formulated and ever so slightly out of control.
The team, led by Michael (Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave) and Russel (Norman Reedus, The Walking Dead), form the core of the wide ensemble cast. Rounded out by bigger Hollywood heavyweights Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson, the selection of actors reads like an Expendables for a new generation. Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul, soon-to-be Wonder Woman Gal Gadot and Clifton Collins Jnr. all join Ejiofor and Reedus on-screen as various members of the crooks-for-hire or Russian gang they serve. However, despite being surrounded by this much raw talent, the stand-out is a career defining turn by Marvel movies alum Anthony Mackie. Playing crooked cop Marcus, Mackie‘s turn is deeply commanding, charged with being the instigator of some of the movie’s harsher moments.
Though dark by nature, the film isn’t without a glimmer of idealism, as is a trope of Hillcoat‘s story-telling. Mackie is paired with Casey Affleck, who represents Triple 9‘s moral centre in Chris, a new fresh-faced transfer to Marcus’ district. Wet behind the ears to a beat ruled by street gangs, Chris’ slightly holier than thou nature to dealing with gang crime does come across as a little more naïve than perhaps intended. Introducing a character as genuinely good-natured as Chris isn’t the issue, but more that in a story drenched in moral ambiguity, he feels a tad lazy as a story-point. The film goes to great lengths to introduce various reasons how these men ended up career criminals and making Chris one of the more integral characters to the plot undermines that complexity. There’s offhand mentions of strands of gang politics going into war-torn Iraq along with scenes of both torture and sustained drug abuse. Yet in the second half, the movie seems to argue with itself over how dark it wants to be with Chris being such a straight good guy. Of course, there is the sense that this is meant to be the moral centre – who are you going to care for, the actual good guy, or the good guy doing the bad thing? – but it comes across less like a point for discussion among the audience and more the film being unsure of itself.
Which is indicative of Triple 9‘s own broader issues. Well put together as it is, some of the finer points just aren’t chewed out enough for the picture to really be at ease with itself. Some themes and points of conjecture are introduced but never really discussed. The final act, though tense, does leave one with a sense that ideas have been left on the table. Which, when you’re dealing with a mob of talent such as this, seems a touch wasteful. Less density would have allowed some of the more emotive scenes and plot-points to flourish to greater effect.
That said, Triple 9 works in most of the the ways it means to. Seeing a film such as this put these actors in leading roles does it many favours and really allows some of the lesser known names to shine. Familiar territory it may be, it’s familiar territory well used. Even with all the doom and gloom, Triple 9 is the right kind of action flick made with the right kind of people and it’s hard not to crack a smile by the end, no matter how many teeth are forcefully removed.
Triple 9 will be in cinemas February 19.
