Review of Broken City (2013) by Graham W — 11 Jul 2013

A very enjoyable film with some very subtle performances all round. Mark Wahlberg plays a troubled anti-hero that is suppose to be 7 years on-the-rocker but the events of the movie unfold him as you join him in finding out what he's made of. This is played quite well and they avoid the formulaic lengthy scenes where you watch relationships breakdown and instead swap them for quite a speedy film-noir style. Wahlberg is the only character in the movie that doesn't know all the details of the plot but he finds himself positioned to be the only person able to take action and he must collect the pieces.

Catherine Zeta Jones plays a very subtle plot facilitator who steps in at various points in the film with good performances meerly designed to set the tone of the film back to sinister. Russell Crowe plays a bent mayor, he stops short of gangster-esque thriller behaviour and plays it down as a much more realistic character that is unravelled as the plot progresses.

As I said I really enjoyed this film but I understand why it's not for everyone. The tone stops short of thriller and sits more into film-noir, Wahlberg does after all play a private investigator who falls into a case he didn't ask for. Wahlbergs character arcs are also very sudden, I found them believable but not natural and this will shake a lot of people free at those points.

Also the film gives away a huge spoiler in the trailer which really ruins the pace of the film as the scene in question approaches.

4/5 stars - a good watch I would recommend.