It didn't take much convincing to get me into the cinema for this one. I've been looking forward to it for a while, not for it's content and concept, but purely for the names attached. John Hillcoat has yet to make a bad movie, and I figured him finally tackling present day could yield some interesting results. Pairing him with his biggest and most impressive cast yet could only bring further promise.
Unsurprisingly, Triple 9 is driven by it's characters, with a handful of impressive, gritty action setpieces to keep the audience's attention. We follow characters on both sides of the law, including the murky grey in the middle, but no-one is particularly likable. We have Mike, head of the criminal crew plotting an officer down code as a distraction. He's in with the (Jewish?) mob more than he'd like by way of having had a son with the boss' sister, Elena, giving Irina, the boss, more leverage over him than he'd like. His crew is made up of army buddy Russel, his deadbeat brother Gabe, Gabe's Gang Unit cop friend Marcus, and another dirty, somewhat psychotic cop Franco. Marcus has just been assigned a newbie as a partner; Chris, who just so happens to be the nephew of Jeff; the head of the Homicide division. Of course with such ties, it's the newbie who ends up as the target of the triple nine.
Each one gets varying degrees of character development, but due to their being so many characters, it's unsurprising that there might not be as much as you might hope. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Mike as a sharp leader who's just unhappy with his situation and what he's made to do for the sake of his own son. Kate Winslet hams it up a little bit as Irina, but never quite reaches the amount of intimidation required for the role, and you wonder why Mike doesn't just shoot her in the face and be done with it. Casey Affleck is a little dull as Chris, who's probably the most likable character by accident, having no discernible character beyond being the guy thrown into a world he doesn't entirely understand. Anthony Mackie, however, manages to bring a bit more depth to Marcus than any other character/actor. As the guy tasked with initiating the triple nine, he suffers a strike of conscience at inconvenient times, but is still ultimately a corrupt cop. Aaron Paul does what he does best with Gabe, which is walk around lost with tears welling up the whole time, although in Triple 9, at least his character has good reason. Clifton Collins Jr. plays the semi-psychotic Franco with as much cold heart as is necessary without making the audience wonder how he got passed the police tests in the first place. Woody Harrelson's Jeff is the well- meaning drunkard, who is as close to a show-stealer as Triple 9 gets. Norman Reedus, Gal Gadot, and Michael K. Williams all make small and underdeveloped appearances throughout, as Russel (the only guy on the crew who seems to have his head screwed on), Elena (who exudes bad mother), and Sweet Pea (transvestite pimp who has her ear to the ground) respectively.
In truth, the impressive cast was necessary just to be able to keep track of who was who at times. There isn't enough time to get particularly attached to any of them as the plotting keeps the movie moving quite thoroughly, although I must note there were some questionable holes (such as, you have the guys son, why not use him rather than offing one of his crew members and making it infinitely harder for him to get the job you want done). Dotted about are some smatterings of action, and to be honest, this is where the film's strength lies. The movie opens with the bank job that doesn't quite go to plan as Gabe gets a bit greedy, resulting in them all covered in red dust. Of course there's the second half of the job which makes up the movie's climax in the third act as well, but in the middle we switch perspectives a bit and follow a police raid in the heart of Mexican gang territory, and absolutely marks the movie's high point.
Story wise, holes aside, there's quite a lot going on and quite a lot to keep track of. Everyone seems to be interrelated somehow, and it can take a bit of work on the audience's part to connect all the dots together. Most of the plot is focused around the characters themselves, as I've mentioned, but it cleverly uses this to guide the outcome of the movie. It feels like the writer came up with the idea, came up with the characters, and then threw them together and followed them individually along the timeline to figure out how they'd end up at the end, and what their role would be. This results in some fairly unpredictable twists and turns that make complete sense from the perspective of the characters.
In all Triple 9 is a solidly enjoyable movie. It's not the masterpiece I'd hoped for, marking itself probably as Hillcoat's worst movie, but that's not really saying a lot as all his work is top-tier. Every actor does their job to the best of their ability, hamstrung only by the amount of time and space they get given to work on their characters. Triple 9 is less than two hours in length, but there's a lot to fit in, which makes it feel like quite a long movie. Thankfully it never rushes through, and makes enough time to linger on moments a little longer than you might expect. I give Triple 9 an enjoyable 7/10.
