Broken City

One of the attractions of going to the cinema is to sit in a theatre alongside other people who, for the most part, we don’t know and cannot see, but who give a comfortable air of assurance that we are in the right place at the right time. So it was a somewhat uncomfortable experience to sit in an all-but-empty cinema to watch Broken City, with only the projectionist and a couple in the back row for company.

Perhaps I should have realised from the outset that the lack of audience was a sign. The film itself is a crime thriller with enough to keep you interested but not to really grip your imagination. Directed by Allen Hughes on his first outing as sole director (he has worked with his brother, Albert, on previous films), it stars Mark Wahlberg as Billy Taggart, an ex-NYPD cop-turned-private detective. He has constant money troubles and carries the emotional scar of shooting an unarmed man who had allegedly raped his partner’s sister. He is hired by the Mayor of New York, Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) to investigate his wife Cathleen’s (Catherine Zeta-Jones) suspected infidelities.

Wahlberg is a good actor, but he is not utilised well in this film as his script is stilted, perfunctory and predictable. As for Russell Crowe – the gladiator has become someone who looks as if he has been standing too close to a radiator; his orange tan and comb over are slightly disconcerting. You get the impression that his constant whiskey-drinking might have something to do with the fact that he needs some Dutch courage to deliver some pretty corny lines. His character comes across as a shrewd and experienced operator, determined at all costs to stop his opponent, Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper) taking over the city.

As the film develops we find out why Hostetler specifically chose Taggart to investigate his wife. There are a variety of additional sub-plots in the film that just do not work, including the uncomfortable relationship between Taggart and his actress partner, Natalie Barrow (Natalie Martinez), that culminates in them separating after he sees her on-screen romance. It’s not very convincing and the fact that she is the sister of the victim we see at the start of the film is not explained or developed until the final scenes. The battle for mayoral supremacy, too, is uninspiring. The political process is presented in such a stereotypical way and the candidates portrayed so negatively that you follow the election campaign and results with disinterest. The TV debate between the two candidates borders on pantomime, but perhaps that’s the point.

There is a constant theme of Catholic guilt and Latino angst and disillusionment running through the film. The twists and turns never really come together in such a way that you feel you are watching a smooth and slick production; rather it becomes disjointed and clumsy, which is disappointing. At times, the reference to Taggart made me hark back to Glasgow’s famous detective, and the relationship that Wahlberg’s character has with his assistant, Katy Bradshaw (Alona Tal) is the warmest one in the film and allows you to keep faith in human nature. The film’s strongest asset is the excellent cinematography which sweeps across New York like an artist’s brush over canvas; it looks exciting, enthralling and intoxicating. It’s a shame the same cannot be said about the story.

As a film noir, Broken City struggles to make its stamp. The length of time it took to make this film and the rewrites to the script have taken their toll. There is a good film in there struggling to get out, but in the end you feel that the stellar cast have been under-utilised and that they too are going through the motions.

One thing that did work was the product placement of Jameson’s Whiskey throughout the film: as soon as it finished, I reached for the bottle. Broken City is worth seeing, but perhaps you should wait for the DVD release and watch it in the company of those you choose to be with.

John-Paul Morrison



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