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Don’t let Emily Blunt’s smile deceive you; she knows how to kick ass.
BFew phrases are bandied about as often, and as inaccurately, as the “war on drugs,” which in this country is neither a war nor anything waged against the actual drugs. That didn’t stop provocative director Denis Villeneuve from taking a look at how an actual war on those who traffic in drugs might be waged. The answers he posits in Sicario are not pleasant to consider but often fascinating to watch.
In Sicario, a covert government task force led by mystery man Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) decides to take more direct action against a major Mexican drug cartel. Graver recruits FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) with a promise that she can bring down some bad guys. Kate soon realizes that Graver isn’t looking to make arrests but to take more direct action, and he’s being helped by a mystery man named Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), who has his own reasons for going after the cartel.
The moral, ethical, and legal issues in Sicario are quite complex, Villeneuve and screenwriter Taylor Sheridan obviously intend for Kate to be the audience’s proxy. It soon becomes clear to the audience, although not to Kate, that she’s just around to provide the illusion of a legitimate FBI operation. However, the moral issues are never as clearly framed here as in Villeneuve’s last film, Prisoners. Instead, Kate comes across more as a petulant child pouting on the sidelines while the grownups go ahead without her. Although Sicario is eventually less provocative than it could have been, it’s an excellently made film, though, with brilliant cinematography by Roger Deakins and solid lead performances by Blunt and, especially, del Toro, who appears more invested in a film than he has been in years. The set pieces, especially a shootout on the bridge between Juarez and El Paso, are as exciting and suspenseful as any this year. Ultimately, however, Sicario never becomes more than a well-made thriller on a timely, controversial topic.
In this scene, Emily Blunt watches a dangerous confrontation develop on the crowded bridge connecting Juarez and El Paso. Our full review of Sicario is now available on Silver Screen Cinema.
Photo credit: “Emily Blunt” by Gordon Correll / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
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