R, 121 minutes, 2015
8/10
Crime films and political thrillers are a tricky business. There’s always a
temptation for filmmakers to push a personal agenda and drown a potentially
good story in heavy-handed critiques of society or government. This is far from
the case in Sicario, a tense, tight,
and often disturbing thriller set in the world of the Mexican drug trade. Films
set in the criminal underworld usually commit one of two sins: they either
completely demonize the people in the business, or glamorize them far too much.
But director Denis Villeneuve does neither, choosing rather to paint a bleak
portrait of normal people living in a hellish situation, with a main character (a
brilliantly convincing Emily Blunt) who acts as us, the audience, viewing this dark world with confused and frightened eyes.
Blunt is Kate Macer, an FBI agent called to work with the
CIA in order to uncover the leader of a notorious drug cartel. The CIA team is
led by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin, in reliable Brolin mode) whose lax attitude
towards the rules makes Kate uneasy, and she suspects he may not be telling her
everything about the mission. This is especially true when she meets his
Colombian partner (an effectively creepy Benicio del Toro), who seems to have
an agenda all his own. Soon enough, Kate is at the center of a war where
everything she was trained for no longer matters. This is a world where the law
and the outlaw are sometimes one and the same.
The plot unravels slowly, but with each revelation, the tension mounts, all
leading up to a shocking and unsettling climax. Though the answers to the plot
are revealed, the answers to the moral questions raised by Kate and the viewer
are left for discussion afterward. Where do we, as Americans, draw the line
with the war on drugs? When do we stop being soldiers and become the monsters we
claim to be fighting? Does keeping the violence down and our family safe
justify cooperating with crime? Villeneuve ponders this last notion in a series
of scenes showing a corrupt Mexican police officer at home with his wife and
son. He acts the way any caring, compassionate father should towards his
family, except for his participation in the drug trade that’s overtaken the
country and affected the lives of so many. Is he wrong to do this for the sake
of his family? None of the answers come easy, but that’s part of the genius of
Sicario. Despite the unsettling ending (one might have wished for more closure
for some characters), it leaves one staring in shock at the screen and with
plenty to talk about.
(Content warning: Plenty of language and some brief but grisly images of murder victims.)
