Review of Sicario (2015) by Jcasetnl — 30 Nov 2016

Keeps interest with gritty visuals and interesting characters, but Emily Blunt is completely miscast as the hand-picked local law enforcement to assist in a larger drug operation that plays fast and loose with the law. Blunt, sold early in the film as a tough-but-moral cop (and her toughness is a hard sell, indeed) makes one bumbling, naive move after another as the chaos of the drug war is revealed to her. From a plot perspective, ultimately her roll in the drug operation really doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't take much thought to imagine a ton of other FBI better suited to the overarching goals. Vague, I know, but I can't say more unless you want spoilers.

Setting aside Blunt, a side story of a Mexican State police officer who smuggles drugs never really goes anywhere save to humanize some of the low-level traffickers "just trying to put food on the table". Of course he loves his son. Of course his wife is worried and prays at dinner. Of course his son plays soccer. Lastly, if you like films with military operations, tactics and so on, this isn't your film. Literally in the first couple minutes, Blunt is on an FBI operation to bust a drug house in full body armor, assault weapons and a troop carrier. As they're searching the house yelling tactical stuff like "room clear!", Blunt walks into a room without looking(!!), and the cliche bad guy with a shotgun is of course standing right out in the open, and of course is going to shoot it out despite dozens of agents swarming the building. He manages to miss from five feet away, but ol' quick draw Emily Blunt spins and pumps him full of lead. He falls to the ground still clutching the shotgun, and Blunt walks right up to him, doesn't neutralize his weapon and then checks his pulse. For a film trying to do gritty realism, it doesn't fly.