Movie Review - Triple Frontier

Director and co-writer J.C. Chandor crafts his fourth feature, which is now his biggest effort yet. I'll get to his contribution in a moment, but first I wanted to talk about his co-writer and producer here, Mark Boal. Boal is a two-time Oscar winner and a four-time Oscar nominee for his films The Hurt Locker (2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012), which were made with Boal's long-time collaborator, Kathryn Bigelow. It's interesting to see how their works prior to this reverberate here. One of the stars is Ben Affleck and he seemingly has never worked with the writers or director previously, but it's clear how Affleck's prior works also reverberate in this film too.

Let's start with Boal. Zero Dark Thirty featured a climactic scene in the third act that was all about a military unit infiltrating the compound of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist leader who attacked the United States on 9/11. This film basically takes that idea and stretches it out to a full two hours. Instead of a terrorist leader in Pakistan, here the compound being infiltrated is owned by a South American drug-lord, a kingpin named Gabriel Martin Lorea. The other difference is that instead of being active Navy SEALs, the guys in question here are retired military.

Chandor and Boal's script makes that important because it wants to comment on the status of retired military soldiers. The commentary seems to be chiefly about the economic or financial situation of retired soldiers. One of the themes and even conclusion of Boal's The Hurt Locker is that "war is a drug," which is a quote by journalist Chris Hedges that opens the film. Boal was trying to illustrate something which draws men into these militaristic situations, be it either adrenaline or the camaraderie and brotherhood at play.

Here, it's not as if Boal is suggesting that those kinds of men could be motivated by money and indeed they're not, but this film does put into question the notion of compensation or perhaps glory. In a way, Boal is grappling with ideas of greed and even pride. Most men and women who join the military do so not for the money or even the glory, but this movie is trying to tap into the frustration that some veterans must feel when they come back home or retire and feel like they have to struggle to maintain even a lower middle-class existence or to stay ahead of being impoverished or even be acknowledged properly for their service.

There have been very few films that have dealt with this issue directly. One that comes immediately to mind is Irwin Winkler's Home of the Brave (2006). This film doesn't make the case as strongly that the men here are really struggling financially or on the verge of being destitute. It is more about them being greedy and feeling entitled to more because of their service. That entitlement might be something that some people might grant without much more, but the film needed to make the case of what was fueling the greed and it doesn't do so in a convincing manner. Even on the possible motivation of glory, there's little to no argument here.

What's left is Chandor making what amounts to a heist movie or crime thriller, one with echoes of military action flicks like Zero Dark Thirty or even Peter Berg's Lone Survivor (2013). In fact the third act of this film is infused with the same kind of energy and dynamics of Lone Survivor, but the action is nowhere near as intense or brutal. It does aspire to that level, but it doesn't quite get there. Chandor doesn't quite engross us and put us as much in the shoes of the men as Berg did, but Chandor's momentum is never boring. The narrative does move along in a strong and forceful way.

Chandor was nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing for his debut feature Margin Call (2011). That film was basically about a group of men stuck in a building, not physically, but stuck in a metaphorical sense as they faced a problem almost of their own making. Chandor followed that film with All is Lost (2013). That film also was about being stuck. It wasn't a group of men who were stuck but simply one man who was stuck and how he has to fight against the elements, particularly the open sea. Chandor's next and previous film was A Most Violent Year (2014). That film like Margin Call was about a man committing financial crimes and being pushed toward deadly actions.

This film basically incorporates all of those aspects. It's about a group of men who commit financial crimes or crimes for financial gain who are then pushed toward deadly actions in order to survive. It's also about those same men being stuck, not in a skyscraper like Margin Call or out in the Indian Ocean like All is Lost, but instead, these men are stuck in the jungles of South America near the Andes Mountains and possibly the Colombian coast.

Oscar Isaac who starred in Chandor's A Most Violent Year teams up with the director again starring as Santiago Garcia aka "Pope." Pope used to be Army Special Forces. He's now working with South American governments to bring down threats. His focus seems to be on drug trafficking and related crimes with his main target being the drug-lord named Lorea. He has an informant that works for Lorea who has told him where Lorea is stashing all of his money and fortune. Pope decides that he wants to rob Lorea of his cash.

Unlike Ocean's Eleven (2001) or the more recent B-movie Den of Thieves (2018), this premise isn't the real crux of this film. The plan to rob Lorea isn't what's exciting or even interesting about this film. The plan for the robbery in fact is not as insurmountable or as complicated as even a recent heist movie as Logan Lucky (2017). It's more trying to be like Steve McQueen's Widows (2018) where it's more about the relationships between the people involved. Except, Boal and Chandor's script doesn't do sufficient digging into the characters of the men, beyond some superficial things. Unlike Widows, this film doesn't dwell in the run-up to the crime. It dwells more in the aftermath of the crime, focusing on the men trying to get away or escape with their stolen cash. That makes this film a bit distinctive.

Ben Affleck (Justice League and Gone Girl) co-stars as Tom Davis aka "Redfly." He was also Army Special Forces but he retired and became a real estate agent. Unlike the others, he married with a teen daughter. We're given a bit more about why he's pushed to greed more than the others. Affleck gives a good performance to that effect, but it's still not enough. In terms of Affleck's presence and influence, this film feels like it's not that uncommon from The Town (2010) and Argo (2012). Both those films are comparable because both are heist films. In terms of dynamics and themes, this film is like The Town and Argo had a baby.

Charlie Hunnam (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Pacific Rim) also co-stars as William Miller aka "Ironhead." He was another of Pope's friends in the Army Special Forces. He's a retired captain who does speaking events around the country. He has a brother named Benny, played by Garrett Hedlund (Mudbound and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk), who's ex-military too but who's now a MMA fighter doing cage matches. Ironhead is supposedly doing the robbery in order to give his brother more glory or a better life than having to spar, but their motives aren't developed enough either.

Yet, seeing Hunnam trek through the jungles of South America, I couldn't help but be reminded of Hunnam doing the same in James Gray's The Lost City of Z (2017), a far better film. The struggle of a group of guys with this kind of training who turn to crime is much better explored in the TV series The Shield. This is a brief, muscular expression of that, which can't quite measure up.

Rated R for violence and language throughout.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 5 mins.

Available on Netflix.