Contraband

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-smuggler who works installing security alarms and lives a peaceful life with his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and their two sons in New Orleans. One day, Chris and Kate learn that her brother Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) was smuggling drugs in a cargo ship, but was forced to drop them into the Mississippi River in order to avoid arrest during a surprise inspection by U.S. Customs. Andy’s boss, ruthless mobster Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), is infuriated and demands repayment.

Chris meets with Briggs, who threatens to kill Chris’ family if Andy doesn’t pay $700,000 in two weeks. Chris realizes that the only way to raise the money is to run contraband and joins the crew of a cargo ship where his father Bud (William Lucking), currently in prison, used to run contraband, in order to buy $10,000,000 in fake bills in Panama and smuggle them into the U.S. with the help of Andy and Chris’ old friend Danny Raymer (Lukas Haas). While Chris is gone, Briggs and a couple of his thugs break into Chris’s house and scare his wife and kids. Chris asks his best friend, Sebastian Abney (Ben Foster), to take care of his family. He suggests that Kate and the children move to his apartment, and she accepts.

In Panama, the Chief Engineer gives Chris extra time by sabotaging the ship’s pitch propeller, drawing suspicion from Captain Camp (J K Simmons). However, Chris discovers that the bills are useless and refuses to accept them. The only one who can provide them good ones is crime lord Gonzalo (Diego Luna). Briggs calls Andy and threatens to kill one of his nephews if Andy doesn’t use the buy money intended for the fake bills to acquire a stash of cocaine. Andy runs off, leading an infuriated Gonzalo to force Chris and Danny to participate in an armored car heist. They are successful, but Gonzalo and his men are killed in a firefight with the police.

Chris and Danny make it back to Gonzalo’s warehouse, where they then escape in a van loaded with the fake money and a painting stolen from the armored car. Meanwhile, Sebastian begins working with Briggs against Chris after Scottish gangster Jim Church (David O’Hara) threatens to kill Sebastian if he doesn’t repay the money he borrowed to save his fledgling construction business. When Sebastian calls Chris, Chris tells him that he might drop the drugs in the ocean. Sebastian tells Briggs to scare Kate in order to make sure that Chris doesn’t dump the drugs. That night, Briggs rams Kate’s workplace with his truck and assaults her, warning her to tell Chris to not dump the “package”. Sebastian pretends to rescue her, scaring off Briggs. He tells Kate to get in his truck, but she smells alcohol on him, takes her kids and drives to a friend’s house.

At the Panama City freight yard, the ship’s cook has a container standing by for the contraband-loaded van. He bribes a freight-yard supervisor to delay the loading of three containers to give Chris time to make it to the ship. Chris assaults Andy for stealing the money and buying cocaine. Andy reveals what Briggs told him before. Kate calls Chris and tells him what Briggs did to her and what he said. Chris is surprised that Briggs knew the idea of Chris dumping the drugs. He first suspects Andy, but after Andy persistently tells Chris he didn’t say anything, Chris figures out it was Sebastian, who he calls and threatens to kill.

Sebastian’s constant watch over Kate becomes tiresome to her. She goes back to Sebastian’s apartment to retrieve some personal items. Sebastian, under the influence, tries to force himself on her. Kate resists him, runs to the bathroom, locks the door and tries to call Chris. Sebastian insults Kate and tells her not to call Chris, telling her he needs to complete his mission and Kate calling him would ruin everything. Kate calls him anyway, and Sebastian breaks the door open, sending Kate flying and bashing her head against the tub. Sebastian thinks she is dead and panics, wraps her in plastic, and throws Kate’s unconscious body in a hole.

Sebastian then contacts Camp and admits that Chris is smuggling on his ship, promising him a share if he makes sure Chris doesn’t throw it overboard. Chris does not give up the contraband, so the captain calls U.S. Customs. However, when the Customs Agents meet the ship in port, they cannot find the drugs.

After Andy leaves the ship, Briggs and his thugs chase and corner him. After Customs has excused Chris, he meets Briggs in a desolate area of the cargo yard where he threatens to kill Andy. Chris breaks Briggs’s car window, throws him out, and beats him for everything he did to his family. He tells Andy to run and takes Briggs to Camp’s house, having made a duplicate key while on the ship, and knowingly activates the security system. Chris opens Camp’s personal carpet cleaner and retrieves the cocaine from the water tank. Briggs compliments Chris on his smuggling skills, and sits in Camp’s living room tasting the cocaine. Chris asks permission to go to the bathroom, and sneaks out in the Camp’s car. Camp awakens to the noise, and comes into the living room as the police arrive. Chris is long gone and both Briggs and Camp are arrested.

Chris goes to Sebastian’s construction site and brutally beats him, demanding Kate’s location. When Sebastian tells Chris that she’s dead, he tries calling her cellphone and hears the ringtone in a building foundation where cement is being poured and rescues her. Sebastian is arrested and meets Bud in prison, where Bud gives a group of inmates an approving nod as they surround Sebastian.

Danny retrieves the fake bills, which Chris had previously dumped into the Mississippi River. Andy buys the escape van at a police auction.

Chris meets with Church, who pays him $3 million for the fake currency. In a friendly conversation, Church asks Chris if he knows anything about a Jackson Pollock (Autumn Rhythm) painting that was stolen in Panama, telling him that it’s worth over $140 million, or $20 million on the black market. As they leave the meeting with Church, they find painting still in the van, having gone unnoticed. The film ends with Chris and his family in a waterfront house and happy.

REVIEW:

Where should I begin with a movie like Contraband? Well, the trailers would have us believe that this was some kind of die hard action flick, but when you watch the flick you learn that is more of a crime thriller with some action thrown in there to keep it from being a drama. The quandary about this is whether or not it should have in fact been an action flick as opposed to what can best be described as Gone in 60 Seconds without the cars.

What did I like?

It works. I read a review about this earlier this week that said Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, and Giovanni Ribisi all have become the kind of actors that play the same role in just about every film they’re in. Now that I think about, that is true, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it? It isn’t like they stink up the place, as a matter of fact Ribisi is the only one who seems to have any life in this cast!

Calculated. The way in which they pull off this caper is quite impressive. The attention to detail really caught my attention. Usually in film where there are smugglers they don’t cover all the bases. These guys even went so far as to using salt to keep the money in a safe spot when they threw it overboard so as to keep from getting caught by the authorities.

Family. Unlike other films like this, they decide to keep an eye on the family, even going so far as to make them part of the plot, as opposed to seeing them wave goodbye and never seeing them again. For me, this was kind of an important thing, especially since it involved Kate Beckinsale!

What didn’t I like?

Ship. For some reason, I think this would have been better, or should I say more effective, if they had done this in the air rather than sea. I’m not saying the use of the boats was pointless, but given how paranoid everyone is about what kind of cargo goes in the air and whatnot, perhaps using that would have added to the intrigue.

No chemistry. I love Kate Beckinsale. What straight man doesn’t, right? My jealousy for him being married to her aside, I just didn’t buy that Mark Wahlberg was married to her. It seemed like some odd pairing that was done at the last minutes. Sort of like the understudy having to fill in because the lead got sick at the last-minute. Everything is there, except the time put in to feel each other. That’s what this was like.

Trouble. The whole reason behind this little caper, Wahlberg’s brother-in-law, doesn’t seem to be very helpful during this whole thing. He even runs off without telling anyone and when he comes back is lucky Wahlberg doesn’t kill him! I don’t know, I guess I’m just from a different generation where if someone offers to help you out, you do what you can to offer some assistance.

Contraband was an ok flick. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. For everything good, there was something that I wasn’t too crazy about. Do I recommend it, though? Yes, there is no reason that you shouldn’t see this film. Bear in mind, though, that not everyone is going to like it. Some of you will be bored with it and some may even get pissed with how things unfold.

3 out of 5 stars

A Serious Man

PLOT (spoiler alert!!!):

In a Polish shtetl in the early 20th century, a Jewish man tells his wife Dora that he was helped on his way home by Traitle Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. Dora objects, saying Groshkover is dead, and that the visitor must be a dybbuk. Groshkover (Fyvush Finkel) arrives and laughs off the accusation, but Dora plunges an icepick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits into the snowy night.

In Minnesota in 1967, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a professor of physics whose wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), abruptly informs him that she needs a get (a Jewish divorce document) so she can marry widower Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed).

Three other people live with Larry and Judith. Their son Danny (Aaron Wolff) owes twenty dollars for marijuana to an intimidating Hebrew school classmate, but the bill is hidden in a transistor radio since confiscated by his teacher. Daughter Sarah is always doing her hair. Larry’s brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), sleeps on the couch and spends his free time filling a notebook with “a probability map of the universe.”

Larry faces an impending vote on his application for tenure, and his department head lets slip that anonymous letters have urged the committee to deny him. Clive Park, a student worried about losing his scholarship, meets with Larry in his office to argue he should not fail the class. After he leaves, Larry finds an envelope stuffed with cash. When Larry attempts to return it, Clive’s father comes to his house to threaten to sue either for defamation if Larry accuses Clive of bribery, or for keeping the money if he does not give him a passing grade.

At the insistence of Judith and Sy, Larry and Arthur move into a nearby motel. Judith has emptied the couple’s bank accounts, leaving Larry penniless, so he enlists the services of a sympathetic divorce attorney (Adam Arkin). Larry learns Arthur faces charges of solicitation and sodomy, despite his previous attendance at “mixers.”

To cope with his streak of unfortunate circumstances, Larry turns to his Jewish faith. The two rabbis he consults are either obtuse, oblivious, or obscure. His synagogue’s senior rabbi is never available. Larry’s mental state reaches a breaking point when he and Sy are involved in seemingly simultaneous, but separate, car crashes. Larry is unharmed, but Sy is killed. At Judith’s insistence, Larry pays for Sy’s funeral.

Larry is proud and moved by Danny’s bar mitzvah, unaware of his son’s distractions from nerves and marijuana. During the service, Judith apologizes to Larry for all the recent trouble and informs him that Sy liked him so much that he even wrote letters to the tenure committee. Danny meets with the senior rabbi in his office, where the old man – who has had Danny’s transistor radio in his desk – quotes almost verbatim from the Jefferson Airplane song “Somebody To Love”. He returns the radio and counsels Danny to “be a good boy.”

Larry’s department head compliments him on Danny’s bar mitzvah and hints that he will win tenure. Upon receiving the bill for Arthur’s criminal lawyer, Larry decides to pass Clive, whereupon his doctor calls, asking to see him immediately about the results of a chest X-ray. At the same moment, Danny’s teacher struggles to open the emergency shelter as a massive tornado bears down on the school.

REVIEW:

A few years ago, A Serious Man was one of those films that was a media and critics darling. It even garnered some Oscar nods. However, I had a huge problem with trying to understand what the heck was going on.

What did I like?

Acting. Say what you will about this film, you cannot deny that the acting is top-notch, especially with a bunch of no-name actors (Richard Kind is the biggest name of the cast!!!)

Minimalist. When was the last time you saw a film that had very little, if any, in the way of special effects and whatnot? Well, this is one of those. On top of that, there isn’t much to distract from the story. For this type of film, that is a plus.

Bang. If you’re a fan of The Big Bang Theory, then you’ll recognize the young rabbi. His scene is short, but it may very well be one of the best things about this flick.

What didn’t I like?

Opening. WTF?!? This film starts with some weird Jewish spoken scene that doesn’t seem to relate to anything in the rest of the film. It was bad enough watching it, but then to find out that it had nothing to do with the rest of the film was just the start of my confusion and frustration with this picture.

Incoherence. For the love of me, I could not figure out what the heck was going on with the story, other than this guy is just having his life fall apart ever so slowly. Somehow, this makes a nearly 2 hr flick. I don’t know, I guess I just need to watch it again. Maybe a second viewing will shed some light on what it is that truly is going on here.

Lifeless. Maybe it was just me, but almost all of these characters seemed to be lifeless, except for the militaristic hunter neighbor and the aforementioned rabbi cameo.

As you can probably surmise, A Serious Man did not do anything for me. I just felt lost from beginning to end. It was like when I was in elementary school and looked in my sister’s 12th grade algebra book. Confusion, headaches, dubfoundedness all abounded. All this is not to say this is a bad film, because it isn’t. I am just not the audience for it, I guess.

3 out of 5 stars