Pick of the Week: Contraband

By Horacio Garcia

With a little bit of The Italian Job, a touch of Gone in 60 Seconds and just a dash of Lethal Weapon 2, comes Mark Wahlberg's latest action caper Contraband. Wahlberg is making a career out of playing a character that is very much like him and this retired master smuggler trying to get his life straight fits him like a glove.

Contraband was evidently conceived to exploit the success of the 2003 remake of The Italian Job but seems like they couldn't afford the star power they had then, so instead of an open second installment they went for an alternative story with second-tier movie stars.

I guess Universal executives didn't want to take such a big financial risk on the remake of an Icelandic movie and the truth is that it reflects in some aspects of the movie like the sporadic use they give to that beautiful actress that is Kate Beckinsdale. I'm quite sure Charlize Theron would've had a lot more lines.

The story is based on the script of Reykjavik-Rotterdam, a 2008 thriller in which Baltasar Kormakur, the director of Contraband, played the main character. This version tells the story of Chris Faraday (Wahlberg) whom renounced the path of crime long ago, and lives happily married to pretty Kate (Kate Beckinsdale) and devoted to his wife and children.

Things get hairy when Chris-s brother-in-law Andy (a very good Caleb Landry Jones) has to drop a drug cargo he's smuggling into New Orleans before the authorities catch him. Of course, the drug cargo had an owner who wants his money back; enters Giovanni Ribisi as Tim Briggs, a ruthless criminal who puts the pressure on Andy so in order to save his life. Chris has no choice but to go back to what he does best: contraband.

Despite some sluggish script writing and a somewhat convoluted plot, Contraband is a very entertaining film. Wahlberg walks into the skin of his hero with a confidence that suggests his real life persona is very much like Chris Faraday and you have the impression that the evident pleasure Chris experiences when going to the Dark Side is very much Mark's enjoyment and his confidence gives the character undeniable authenticity. He goes into it so naturally that it makes you wish Tom Cruise was so confident in his latest Mission Impossible.
As I said before, Contraband has a cast of second tier stars but everybody is playing there familiar roles with ease: Caleb Landry Jones's Andy is the youngster way over his head, Ben Foster in his usual scary-as-hell quasi psycho (you just know something is going to go wrong when Chris leaves him in charge of keeping an eye on his family…) and Kate Beckinsdale as a tough blond.

Considering we are in January, and that most of the season blockbusters were launched during the holydays, Contraband is a very good choice for the weekend.

Tags Ben Foster, blogger: Horacio Garcia, Caleb Landry Jones, Contraband, Kate Beckinsdale, Mark Wahlberg