Broken City

Title: Broken City

Director: Allen Hughes

Screenwriter: Brian Tucker

Producers: Remington Chase, Randall Emmett, George Furla, Allen Hughes, Marc Wahlberg

Cast: Marc Wahlberg, Russell Crowe.

Popcorn Movies Rating: 7

What a flaw in the narrative can make to a thriller

By: David Maldonado

An interesting story, with excellent cast but, with a small and significant flaw in the narrative.

Detective Billy Taggart (Marc Wahlberg), is accused of killing a man but, it is set free when the judge can’t find enough evidence to put on the trial. The evidence however, is in the hands of the Mayor Nick Hostetler (Russell Crowe), who decide to keep it to himself because the victim was after all, a criminal who deserve to die. The case does cost Tagger his badge so seven years later he’s working as a private detective when the Mayor calls him for a job. During his own investigation Billy learns that in politics nothing is what it’s seems.

The best of the film is its characters, both in the script and on screen. They are 100% humans with flaws and good qualities. The protagonist isn’t good or bad; he is a man who has done bad things and has to live with it. So he is not a hero and the only reason why is he on such a big trouble is because at some point the thing became personal to him. But that’s how we all are, we decide not the get into the mud except when is our own. Wahlberg does a good job by portraying this man, he have this “not so bad” look that makes him perfect for the job. It is not his most acclaimed job, but isn’t worse than The Happening.

The one with the great character is Russell Crowe. For some reason the bad guy is always attractive to the audience (in terms of acting). He is a real politician. This is a guy that can say his crime to the press and even so people go and vote for him. Crowe best moment in this film is during the final debate for the mayoralty, he got everything a politician would dream about. He dominates the art of change things to make you look like a hero or the victim.

The story on its own is below the acting, but doesn’t mean that is bad. Brian Tucker is a first timer as a screenwriter and he had some good ideas for this thriller. Its big, complicated, and it get worse when we consider that the movie takes place during election time, and of course, is not boring. The elements of surprise and good twist are there, but the problem is that he never uses it. I’ll have to say that the one who makes that mistake is not the writer but the director.

Allen Hughes is not a first timer. He directed movies like The Book of Eli, so he is no amateur. The way that Hughes decided to narrate this story makes it lose its surprise elements and twist. The film doesn’t have suspense or big twist on the story. The reason is because we, as an audience, know everything is happening all the time. Some people believe that a writer shouldn’t keep secrets to the audience. If the main character knows, the audiences have to know. The problem with that is that sometimes the big twist is what the protagonist is hiding.

But for this movie in particularly the real problem was that the protagonist (Billy), know from the beginning that he is a free man because the Mayor wants to. So, why is he surprise of what happened in the end? Doesn’t make sense in the story and destroys the final big twist of the movie. The greatest flaw in this film is that reveals everything too soon and the suspense is not there. And a Thriller without suspense is not so interesting anymore.

I have to say it is not that bad. Is entertaining, has good acting, and is a good story. Not a perfect movie or the top of the careers of Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, but is enjoyable.