“Triple 9” begins with an exhilarating display of crime and corruption, but as the movie progresses, the shallow story leaves little room for the film to breathe. Director John Hillcoat and writer Matt Cook set out to craft a complex tale reminiscent of “The Departed” and “Heat,” but instead end up with a forgettable story with a few solid action sequences.
The cast of “Triple 9” is stacked with A-listers, although this did not always prove to be beneficial to the film. The main cast includes Kate Winslet, Norman Reedus, Aaron Paul, Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie and Woody Harrelson. With a total of 11 Oscar nominations between them (and one win by Winslet), powerful performances should be expected, but the film just never seems to find its focus in time to do them justice.
One of the main characters, Chris Allen (Affleck), is a police officer who has been moved to a new unit in Atlanta. He is partnered with Marcus Belmont (Mackie) despite his reluctance to adopt a partner. Mackie’s character, however, is also a member of a team of criminals who execute jobs for the local Russian mob.
At the start of the film, the team robs a major bank and delivers its loot to mob boss Irina Vlaslov (Winslet). The heist and subsequent getaway are suspenseful enough to grab the audience’s attention, but the film begins to trail off soon after.
The rest of the film is bogged down with patchy scenes to move from one action sequence to the next. The dialogue is often clunky, but this can occasionally be overlooked, as the suspense is often done very well.
One of the finest moments of the film is a raid in an apartment complex. Affleck and Mackie lead their team of detectives up to and through the apartments while hunting for a man involved in pushing drugs. This scene follows the characters for the duration of the raid, culminating in a massive firefight. The sequence is visually engaging and reflects what the film aspires to be.
The film’s story, however, is complicated and seemingly without purpose. The title comes from a police code that goes out when an officer is shot. This relates to a large plot point in the film, as the heist crew needs time to pull off a job and a “999” call would divert attention from any other ongoing calls. A lot of tension in the film derives from Mackie’s ties to the police department as an officer and his willingness to sacrifice another officer’s life in the interest of a heist.
This tension is lacking in the actual execution of said heist. While Mackie’s internal conflict provides for an interesting arc, the actions surrounding it are anticlimactic, play out fairly quickly and seem altogether unimportant.
The conflicts between some of the characters often seem unnecessary, mainly because there is a lack of depth. Teresa Palmer and Gal Gadot are featured in potentially important roles, but the characters themselves are hardly seen, and emotional attachment or explanations of their actions suffer as a result.
Harrelson, too, is underutilized as the lead detective on the case of the bank robbery. His presence appears in small bits, mainly to deliver some cliché, exposition-heavy dialogue to fill the viewer in and motivate the plot.
Even worse, Winslet’s character is unbelievable and ultimately unnecessary. She portrays a Russian Jew heading the operations of the Russian mob in town. Despite her theoretical arch-villain importance, Winslet’s performance never impresses. Sharing screen time with the rest of the extraordinary cast is not easy, but she didn’t capitalize on the time she was given.
Most of the deaths throughout the movie seem almost unmotivated. It was as though the director had a quota for killing a character every 10 minutes. The scenes are all touching in their own ways, but the abruptness of them all nearly ruins the aesthetic.
In all, “Triple 9” was made to air on premium cable for years to come, not because it deserves to be seen more than once, but because minimal attention is necessary to enjoy the few shining moments of the film. Put it on in the background and do something more interesting.
