Triple 9

Solomon from 12 years a Slave. Check.

Ben Affleck’s brother. Check.

Throw in mob boss Kate Winslet and stoner cop Woody Harrelson, and on paper you’ve got a potential ensemble cast to die for in John Hillcoat’s Triple 9, which tells a story of bad cops, and even badder bad guys and bad girls, in modern day Atlanta, USA.None of the aforementioned actors and actresses play nice people in this movie. Everyone is double crossing everyone else, and pretty early on you realise that it’s going be difficult to root for anyone. It’s in those early minutes after a solid opening set piece (with a lovely reveal moment at the end of it) that the movie does falter a bit, as the story stutters in revealing who might be our one true ‘good guy’.That being said,’Triple 9 does know what it’s doing with the set pieces. There are perhaps two or three sequences in the movie where I am pulled right in, and I FEEL what’s going on. It’s in those moments when the movie clicks. The tension is built, the soundtrack is brooding, and the danger is always looming. Particularly impressive is the storming of a block of flats that puts you right there behind the riot shield, then leaves you totally exposed chasing Uzi toting gang members down a suburban street riddle with automatic fire.At other times, usually those where the action has dropped, the movie takes a step back and becomes just average. The camera’s not used well enough to convey the fear, threat, and forboding that those scenes should have. It’s almost like it needs to take it’s time a bit more. One of the strengths of last year's Sicario was it built its tension just as much in the quieter written sequences as it did with its taught action, and in this respect, Triple 9’s screenplay just doesn’t have that balance. The narrative stutters as it tries to deal with themes of friendship, loyalty, and ultimately, treachery, remorse, and guilt. It’s in dealing with these themes where the movie pretty much fails on all fronts. In predominantly giving us a bunch of characters with no redeeming features, I find it a bit difficult to actually give a fuck about any of them. And the ones that I should be caring about I don’t, because the writer and director haven’t the crafting to MAKE me care.With top quality actors nailing their performances, twisting, duplicitous plot lines, and kinetic, disorientating action sequences, there’s much to love in Triple 9, but ultimately it does feel less than the sum of its parts, and leaves me with the feeling that I’ve had a promise broken and a trust betrayed.