Shadows on the Wall

The Rip

dir-scr Joe Carnahan
prd Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Dani Bernfeld, Luciana Damon
with Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Kyle Chandler, Scott Adkins, Nestor Carbonell, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Daisuke Tsuji, Lina Esco
release US/UK 16.Jan.26
26/US Netflix 1h52

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With that standard underlit cinematography and rumbling cop-movie vibe, this Miami Vice-meets-Bad Boys thriller bristles with genre cliches, including too-tough dialog and endlessly growly characters. That said, it's entertaining to watch an increasingly tense mystery unfold over the course of a single night. There's enough going on beneath the beefy surface to hold the interest, although writer-director Joe Carnahan never bothers to meaningfully grapple with the central themes.

After Captain Jackie (Esco) is killed, Miami detectives are under pressure to solve the case. Jaded detectives Dane (Damon) and JD (Affleck) enlist their colleagues Mike (Yeun), Numa (Taylor) and Lolo (Sandino Moreno) to find answers. Their first tip involves Desi (Calle), a young woman who claims to know nothing about the huge "rip" of cash in her attic. The implications here are far bigger than any of them expected. Dane isn't handling the situation properly, concealing its connection to Jackie's murder. And JD didn't hide his relationship with Jackie as well as he thought.

There's a smugness to the jargon-laced dialog that quickly becomes annoying, because it excludes us from whatever these people are talking about. Not that it matters. Like the corny twists and turns in the plot, the words feel far too crafted to be realistic. This fantastical tone creates a nice sense of claustrophobia as creepy details emerge, with menacing phone calls and other more unpredictable elements that signal an impending full-on war. Still, all this carnage is never about anything more than greed.

Damon gives Dane a nicely exhausted persona, a guy who has simply had enough of this nonsense. By contrast, Affleck offers an unusually hard-as-nails performance, chain-smoking, swearing and barely controlling his temper. The tension growing between them is intriguing even if it feels overwrought. And it's enjoyably tempered by more nuanced roles well-played by Yeun, Taylor and Sandino Moreno. Gifted side players like Chandler, Adkins and Carbonell also make the most of their thinly written characters.

Carnahan gleefully creates suspicions among these people, centring around what to do with this life-changing stash and the sometimes blurred lines between policing and criminality. In one of the many on-the-nose touches, Dane has a tattoo on his hand asking, "Are we the good guys?" This provides the kernel of an idea to keep us invested before the shooting starts. And the way everything slots in neatly to answer the plot's questions is a guilty pleasure.

themes, language, violence 16.Jan.26

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