[CRITICAL] INFILTRATOR

Bryan Cranston, basking in the success of the series Breaking Bad, so far has not really capitalized on it. His Golden Globe for his role of manufacturer of methamphetamine or its nomination for an academy award for Dalton Trumbo does not have a priori not enough to attract the best scripts circulating Hollywood. The career of an actor is evaluated, of course, the thread of its performance, but also in his choice of films. On the contrary Matthew McConaughey noticed in The defence Lincoln in a role that propelled him to other more acclaimed, Bryan Cranston seems to be misplaced somewhere between a young first promising 60 years of age and a talented comedian in lack of recognition.

Let me say from the outset, the main shortcoming of INFILTRATOR is his scenario. It is based on the true story of Robert Mazur, a customs officer who laundered money for the cartel of Pablo Escobar in order to trace financial movements. Rather than build gradually a suspense around the delicate position of Mazur, the story moves forward by jumps, anarchic, between past, future and present, creating a total loss of bearings. Very often it is not understood that several minutes after this just happened on the screen. A character dies just after it was introduced to the image, but it is only in the next sequence that we will understand who he was. This process is double-edged sword. Used well it creates a sense of urgency and arbitrary. Poorly or too often used, this string weakens the whole. With INFILTRATOR it is in a space between the two strengthened by a timeline, and a calibration drafts. The bias is clearly to build tension, crescendo, to the detriment of the understanding of the issues of the case, which had in fact experience moments of floating. The concept of suspense, the director Brad Furman was replaced with a coup of theatre. You can count two or three truly successful, and a few other really artificial. This sometimes gives the impression that everything can go awry (like the scene in the jungle) or that we eyeful to hide gaps basic : namely, that there is in fact nothing interesting.

The second aspect disturbing in Infiltrator is related to the casting. Not that the performance of Bryan Cranston or Diane Kruger is bad, but it is impossible not to say seeing the credits at the end that something essential is lost between the original idea and the final creation. In a process that has now been commoditized, we are presented with what became the protagonists of the case, with to the right the photo of the actor and to the left of the character’s history. Immediately seeing the photo of the real Robert Mazur, one is struck by the normality of the character. What is truly exceptional in this story is that an accountant without any charisma could lead a double life, alternating sumptuous feast (coke, whores, and tutti quanti) and Cluedo in families. Gold, Bryan Cranston, even to the alarm clock, unshaven and with a hangover, sweats a manhood of which the real Robert Mazur does will probably never be approached.

One can well understand the thinking behind the choice of Bry– year Cranston. The series Breaking Bad explored already the contradiction between family life and occupation illegal. But where the series we first presented the ordinary man before a failover – credible and progressive – to a dark, INFILTRATOR gives us to see right from the beginning an agent is a super badass who will ultimately little moral dilemmas to face. Essentially, it is for him to avoid the misunderstandings, not a difficult choice to make.

“Purely visual highlight to a realization of the irregular, the image of the grain of the image that appears and disappears with no real consistency”

At the level of the supporting roles, however, has a few good surprises. John Leguizamo (who is not James Franco in a new time, disguised in Latin) takes its pin of the game, but it is especially Benjamin Bratt (best known for his role in the series New York : a Police Justice) who siphons all the attention as soon as it appears on the screen. Elegant and refined, it embodies the angelic face of the Evil which gangrene the United States of the 80’s.

Generally, INFILTRATOR will seduce you with its artistic direction. Costumes and set are involved in an atmosphere not very far removed from a game such as GTA : Vice City or a film, such as The dead end (Brian De Palma). Still on the edge of kitsch and ridiculous, the artistic direction highlighted by some elegant frames reflect the affection for a bygone era. As if the nostalgia gave to these dark times a hint of recklessness. These elements are purely visual highlight to a realization of the irregular, the image of the grain of the image that appears and disappears without any real consistency. We feel that Brad Furman has invested in this story, that he had attempted to give him a real personality, or even a breath. May be because of the conditions of production or by lack of preparation, the final work fails to realize lofty ambitions.

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