THE INFILTRATOR – Review

Bright high contrast colors; gritty cinematography that has the feel of grainy 35mm film stock; long tracking shots; and a cool soundtrack overstuffed with pop hits from the decade; all of this and much more make THE INFILTRATOR a flashy film that is sure to ignite your senses. But this undercover drama is more than just a stylish and slick police procedural film. Despite having a strong air of familiarity, director Brad Furman delivers a cool and confident descent into global crime and corruption.

Based on a true story that opens in 1986, Bryan Cranston plays Robert Mazur, a former accountant for the U.S. government that goes undercover as money launderer Robert Musella in order to infiltrate the organization bringing cocaine into the States. However, Mazur’s plan isn’t to try to track down the drugs, but to follow the money trail that leads to the big man at the top: Pablo Escobar. In order to do so, he incorporates the help of fellow undercover agent Emir Abreu (John Leguizamo) to handle the lower tier thugs on the streets and fresh-on-the-field government agent Kathy Ertz (Diane Kruger) to play his undercover fiancée.

What’s unique about this underground world of money launderers, thugs, and crooked bankers, is that we never see the man at the top. Sure, Escobar is mentioned in conversations, but focusing on the men that are slightly lower on the ladder makes the famed drug smuggler even more of a mysterious evil lurking in the shadows. All the while, director Brad Furman peppers in colorful characters set against lavish backdrops like hotel pools, strip clubs, and mansions. One such character, decked out in an all-white suit, hat, and scarf, is as unpredictable as he is unsavory. You don’t even need the notorious drug leader with a scene-stealing character like this one (played by Yul Vazquez).

Mazur isn’t a particularly memorable character – he doesn’t have any defining traits or characteristics. In a sense, he’s an everyman, which makes his journey all the more relatable. And it’s a journey that carries an emotional price. Cranston, who proves his acting talent time and time again, brings an intensity to the role and raises the stakes by making us care for a simple guy who just wants to get the bad guys. Much of the story is spent on Mazur deep undercover. With each glad-handed meetup or night of drinks and jokes among enemies, you can see Mazur slip deeper into the dark void of the criminal world. He becomes connected to these men as if they were his own family. Furman, thankfully, doesn’t spend as much time cutting back and forth between Mazur’s personal and working life, which further showcases how our undercover hero may becoming morally wayward. Because of his growing friendship with the Alcaino family (led by a strong but reserved Benjamin Bratt), the imminent big bust at the end carries some emotional weight even if Furman plays up the sentimentality almost as loud as the 80s soundtrack.

THE INFILTRATOR comes across as stylish and cool but doesn’t sacrifice the story or characters for style. Allusions to Scorsese’s films are immediate – the film even opens with a long tracking shot following a character walk through a bowling alley – but the approach doesn’t come across as overbearing as some recent Scorsese knockoffs (Yes… I’m looking at you AMERICAN HUSTLE). THE INFILTRATOR doesn’t transcend the “undercover cop” genre, but it delivers enough drama, suspense, and intense performances to make this an unexpected highlight of the summer movie season. With a story about a mission that could go awry at any moment with one wrong move, the film rarely sidesteps from the expected (for better or for worse) and never falters in its delivery of a cool and compelling mission.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

THE INFILTRATOR is now playing in theaters everywhere