Film: Triple 9
Cast: Casey Affleck, Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Clifton Collins Jr, Gal Gadot, Norman Reedus
Director: John Hillcoat
Good faces off evil in this brutal thriller featuring a star ensemble cast whose sterling acting does helmer Hillcoat proud. Set in the mean streets of Atlanta where drugs and violence are par for the course, TRIPLE 9 is a cautionary tale of two detectives striving to nab a gang of corrupt cops pulling off violent robberies for an Israeli-Russian gang. The good cops’ task is made all the harder since, some of the robbers, are either fellow cops, ex cops, or ex-military.
After a successful bank robbery, African American Michael (Chiwetel Ejiofor) Atwood wants out except that Irina (Kate Winslet, formidable) Vaslov, boss lady of the Jewish mafia wants the gang to do one more job. Steal computer files from Homeland Security which may help spring her mobster husband from a Russian jail.
And she won’t take no for an answer from Michael who has begotten a son with her daughter (Gal Gadot, gorgeous) whom she promptly despatches to the sunny beaches of Eilat in Israel, after hubby who is masterminding the heists in absentia tells her to “hurt” Michael for his reluctance to pull off the second heist.
Irina however “spares” Michael and leaves ex cop (Aaron Paul, reprising his Breaking Bad persona) Gabe’s older brother Russell (Reedus) for dead in his stead. This, needless to say, and the threat of never seeing his son again spurs Michael to fall in line.
Naturally, there are obstacles in the shape of good cop Jeffrey Allen (Woody Harrelson) and his idealistic nephew Chris (Casey Affleck) who is assigned partner to crooked cop Marcus (Anthony Mackie) Belmont.
The gang decides Chris will be the sacrificial lamb to facilitate the theft of the Homeland Security documents. Hence, the film’s title which is police code for an officer down.
Inverted, 999 becomes 666 the number of the devil who crops up, figuratively in more ways than one: Michael is tatooed with a pitchfork, the devil’s favoured choice of weapon; a portrait of Christ is profaned (horns/triple 6 etc ) and kept on public display – the globe would have erupted in mayhem had it been some other religious figure. Even the good cop Jeffery who enjoys sneaking a smoke, refers to Christ in blasphemous terms.
When cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis lenses some of the scenes in blood red and sombre black, the allusion to hell is clear to see. Even those who haven’t crossed over to the underworld are thugs or louts, with permanently half-clad, heavily tattooed bodies and guns tucked into their low-hipped, baggy trousers.
Good, upright citizenry seems to be a rarity in this Latino-dominated badlands, fuel in real life to the fiery rhetoric of certain candidates currently aspiring to the White House. If there is redemption at the end of scriptwriter Matt Cook’s grimy narrative, it is for those who shine a light in the monstrous dark.
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