Broken City - (January 18,
2013): R
Opening Weekend Box Office: #5 with $8,268,908
Domestic Box Office Gross to-date: $18,743,464
Gross Revenue: $18,743,464
Production Budget: $35 million
Director: Allen
Hughes
Set in New York City, Broken City introduces audiences to Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg), a
disgraced former NYPD detective who was forced to retire from the force years
ago because of a controversial shooting and is currently scraping by as a
private investigator. Fortunately,
Taggart is soon contacted by former acquaintance Mayor Nicholas Hosteler
(Russell Crowe), a popular public figure up for re-election who wants to hire
the P.I. in order to identify the individual who is currently having an affair
with his wife, Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Given the large payday, Taggart accepts the
controversial assignment and soon concludes that Cathleen is seeing Paul
Andrews (Kyle Chandler), the campaign manager of Hosteler’s chief rival in the upcoming
elections. Thinking his work done,
Taggart delivers his findings to the mayor, but things take a shocking turn soon
after when Andrews is found dead, and it is revealed that Cathleen was not
sleeping with Andrews, but providing him damaging information regarding her
husband’s dealings in order to have him removed from office. Realizing that he has been manipulated into
becoming an accomplice to murder, Taggart resolves to bring Hosteler’s deceit
to the public eye, but his plans begin to suffer when ghosts from his past surface
and threaten to turn him into everything that he has been fighting against for
years.
Well, it could have been a brilliant and exciting
conspiracy drama, but after misfiring on nearly every level imaginable, Broken City represents nothing more than
a prime example of a bad project happening to good actors. The biggest problem with the film is that
neither the writers nor director knew how the story should have been positioned
or presented, as erratic tonal shifts try and fail to execute everything from
comedy and action, to mystery and romance; I’m all for blending genres, but
this time around, the end-result was nothing more than an incoherent mess. And because they tried to do so much in one
film, the main casualties were audience engagement with the story and overall
identification with the characters…not only is it near-impossible to keep track
of what exactly makes Russell Crowe’s character a villain, but it is also hard
to root for Wahlberg, because this is easily one of his least likable on-screen
personas in years. Thoroughly useless
sub-plots involving Taggart’s moody girlfriend, spunky assistant, and
resurfacing drinking problem try and inject our “hero” with some humanity, but
they serve as little more than annoying detractions from the story that viewers
just keep hoping will deliver some kind of pay-off. And believe it or not, the shortcomings I’ve
just laid out represent some of the more forgivable transgressions of Broken City, because the final “twist”
and the hacked-together ending are just downright insulting to anyone who paid
for a ticket.
Some critics have been far more forgiving than I in
regards to Broken City, but if there
is one element of criticism consensus, it involves the thoroughly baffling way
in which the central “twist” of the narrative was laid out. If you ever had the chance to see the
extended preview for Broken City
(which saturated theaters prior to release), then you have a pretty good idea
of the big reveal of the film’s final act, but even if you missed the trailer,
the first five minutes of the film spells out the supposed secret. So after sitting through what feels like an
eternity of a largely boring film, the promised payout is so painfully obvious
that anyone’s reaction of shock on-screen is just groan-inducting. I don’t know if the writers took future
audiences for idiots or were just banking on everyone forgetting the plot
points of the first few minutes, but NO movie’s credibility should hang on a
moment that triggers a “no shit Sherlock” reaction when that moment was built
up to be so much more. So, like I said
in the “Short and Sweet” review, there is virtually no redeeming value to Broken City, and were I not to take
value in warning others to miss such a piece of garbage, I would have walked
out of the theater.
Well, if critical reaction wasn’t enough to convince
Mark Wahlberg to engage in a more strenuous screening process when it comes to
his choice in projects, I guarantee that the box office numbers will make
everyone involved with Broken City a
little more cautious. Even if the
sub-par fifth place opening could be forgiven, 20th Century Fox has
to be reeling over so many big names failing to sell tickets and only being
able to recover a pitiful amount against a relatively modest production budget
of $35 million. With no international
presence and undeniably poor word of mouth, studio executives are going to have
to write down a considerable loss against Broken
City, a move sure to cost someone their job. I’ve said time and again just how much I love
Mark Wahlberg as an actor, but there is no way that anyone’s faith isn’t going
to weaken after something like this comes out with a stinker like Contraband still in recent memory…what
the hell is going to happen now that he has decided to join Michael Bay and the
Transformers franchise? I don’t know how to make it any clearer, Broken City isn’t worth seeing on any
level, so for your own self-respect, stay away from this one.
Overall
Recommendation: Very Low
