Movie review: Contraband

by John P. Meyer

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Master smuggler Chris Farraday thinks he's gotten out — until they pull him back in!

For fans of the Underworld franchise, here's a one-week advance opportunity to see Kate Beckinsale — she of the pertest nose in filmdom — in civilian garb, without all the guns and zippered leather accoutrements. Which, I'm not necessarily saying, is an omission to be desired.

Jeez, though, her nose is pert! (You just want to tweak it!)

Beyond that, Baltasar Kormákur's Contraband plays out as a top-notch action thriller, though not because its plot contains any particularly fresh or genre-stretching elements. In fact, the narrative reeks of well-roasted chestnuts involving stealth villains and last-minute feats of daring accomplished just in the nick of time.

What makes this English-language reboot of the Icelandic original compelling is its command of the very elements that define the genre: immediacy, tension, danger, and — occasionally — story line sucker punches comin' atcha out of left field. It helps considerably that director Kormákur (who actually starred in the Icelandic version) and scripter Aaron Guzikowski have given us fully-formed characters who spout sharp-witted dialog as if they thought it up themselves. It also helps that the actors involved are accomplished in their portrayals.

(If nothing else about the movie lights your candle, you will burn with appreciation for Giovanni Ribisi's weaselly, despicable, oddly hilarious and unaccountably endearing performance as drug-dealer-cum-concerned-father Tim Briggs.)

Mark Wahlberg stars as retired master smuggler Chris Farraday, and by retired I refer to his smuggling ventures as opposed to work in general. Having married and fathered children by the fair and remarkably pert-nosed Kate (Beckinsale), Chris has cleaned up his act to the extent that he now wears monogrammed t-shirts bearing his contracting company logo, and drives a pickup truck with the same.

But Farraday's well-earned reputation as "the Houdini of smuggling" still haunts him, if you can refer to having people buy you drinks at local watering holes as "haunting." So when his lame-brained brother-in-law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) requires a life-saving bailout involving further feats of contraband transportation magic, it's no wonder that the captain of the ship they choose to host the operation recognizes Farraday as potential trouble.

Captain Camp (J.K. Simmons, sporting a New Awlins drawl and a no-nonsense, bulldog attitude) puts Farraday on the equivalent of deck-swabbing duty, which inadvertently gives the master smuggler unfettered access to every corner of the ship. (I didn't say Camp was whip-smart, you'll notice.) And so various hidey-holes are pre-arranged to receive illegal cargo once the ship reaches its Panamanian destination.

Farraday and his shipboard confederates face an uphill, against-the-wind struggle when they debark to take possession of the goods — a gazillion face-value dollars of counterfeit supernotes. The crime boss with whom they're working the deal (Diego Luna, as Gonzalo) is an unhinged lunatic with a Napoleon complex who thinks it might be nice for Farraday and his crew to help him take down an armored car before completing the transaction. You know, on the way back to the container ship, which is set to sail with or without them in about an hour.

Contraband's breathless pacing does a great job of hooking us on the barbs of one tension-building episode after another, both aboard ship and back home in New Orleans, where Farraday has left Kate in the care of his best friend and fellow ex-smuggler Sebastian (Ben Foster). With the sneeringly evil Briggs (Ribisi) threatening to murder every Farraday in sight if the goods don't arrive on time, Sebastian is going to have his hands full — and Kate is probably wishing she had access to some of those tricked-out autos and slick leather bodysuits sported by her alter-ego. (I know that's what I was wishing.)

Bit of a SPOILER ALERT here (so feel free to stop reading), but it's kind of refreshing to realize — after the movie has come to its satisfying "just desserts" conclusion — that Farraday, our tough-guy hero, has made it all the way through the film without shooting and/or killing anyone. Even the sons of bitches who threatened to kill his family. It's an epic demonstration of calculation and guile over brute force, by a guy who obviously could have dished it out if he wanted to.

Charles Bronson is probably spinning in his grave.

To find movie showtimes for Contraband, click here.

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