Broken City

Broken City

Rotten Big Apple

After the dodgy shooting of a murdering rapist, disgraced Noo Yawk cop Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) beats the rap but finds himself drummed out of the police force and goes to work as a sleazy private eye (is there any other kind?) catching adulterers in the act for chump change. 

Flash forward a couple of years and the Big Apple’s gruff, charismatic, Giuliani-esque mayor, Nick Hostetler (Russell Crowe), calls in a favour and hires Billy to tail his wife Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Convinced his wife is having an affair and, with the mayoral elections in less than a week and his liberal rival Jack Valliant (Barry Pepper) doing well in the polls, Hostetler wants to know where his wife’s been sleeping and who with. 

But Billy’s investigations uncover a web of corruption and murder and bring him to the attention of Hostetler’s ambitious, Machiavellian police chief Carl Fairbanks (Jeffrey Wright).  Out of his depth and unsure who to trust, Billy finds himself a pawn in a deadly behind-the-scenes electoral battle with billions of dollars and the future of the city at stake.

An old-fashioned tale of dodgy deals and double crosses, as neo-noirs go Allen Hughes’ slick, pulpy Broken City sure isn’t Chinatown but it’ll do for now.  A refreshingly murky wallow in the corrupt cesspool of big city politics with a cast of believably morally compromised characters, Hughes’ film bears something of a debt to the tight urban thrillers of Sidney Lumet, films like Serpico, Prince Of The City and Q&A, while his direction is as bold and muscular as the films (Menace II Society, From Hell, The Book Of Eli) he made with twin brother Albert.  The script by first-time screenwriter Brian Tucker is far from original, every cliché in the film noir canon is present and correct (shady cops, duplicitous dames, corrupt politicians, dodgy businessman, tarnished hero, several MacGuffins), there’s nothing particularly new or original here, but the film is nimble enough not to get bogged down and Tucker’s funny, profane dialogue sings. 

The characters are familiar but fun and the classy A-list cast are obviously having a ball.  Mark Wahlberg’s Billy is the latest in a tradition of none-too-bright, morally compromised private eye heroes in film noir that dates back to the likes of Robert Mitchum in Out Of The Past, Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly and even Jack Nicholson in Chinatown.  Hell, even Bogart’s Sam Spade wasn’t always sure what was going on.  Playing to his strengths, Wahlberg spends much of the film confused and blundering around in the dark, a pawn of more savvy players, but he’s never less than charismatic and there’s never much doubt that his wisecracking tough guy will eventually do the right thing.  Both Jeffrey Wright and Russell Crowe seem to relish their roles, Crowe’s bullish demagogue the slickest shark in the pond, Wright’s ambiguous police chief an almost Mephistophelian string-puller.  Barry Pepper (Seriously?  You called the good guy politico Jack Valliant?  Come on guys…) and Kyle Chandler are also strong, if a little bland, as Crowe’s more morally upright opponents, Zeta-Jones brings sophistication and glamour to Crowe’s errant missus but the brightest spark of the movie is Alona Tal who’s a suitably feisty noir secretary to Wahlberg’s private dick.

Like its hero, Broken City is never quite as smart as it thinks it is but it’s a dark, entertaining, twisty slice of modern noir.          

David Watson

Directed by:

Allen Hughes

Written by:

Brian Tucker

Produced by:

Randall Emmett, George Furla, Allen Hughes, Stephen Levinson, Teddy Schwarzman, Mark Wahlberg, Arnon Milchan and Remington Chase

Starring:

Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Jeffrey Wright, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Barry Pepper, Kyle Chandler, Alona Tal and Justin Chambers

Genres:

Crime, Drama, Thriller

Language:

English

Runtime:

1 hour 49 minutes

Certificate:

15

Rating:

4/5

UK Cinema Release Date:

Friday 1^st March