Pay close attention
Movie: Broken City Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jeffrey Wright and Barry Pepper Directed: Allen Hughes Reviewed by: Samantha Keogh Revue made possible by: NuMetro
Its all-star cast makes this crime/political drama, which ticks all the formula boxes for the genre, credible.
This was Hughes’ first solo as a director (he previously teamed up with twin brother, Albert, in co-directing, inter alia, Menace II Society, From Hell and The Book of Eli). He took on a difficult script written by Brian Tucker and managed to pull it all together well, thanks to the quality of the cast’s performances.
With only days to go before New York Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Crowe) faces the polls seeking re-election, he encounters a serious threat of being unseated by his opponent, Jack Valiant (Pepper), who claims he is corrupt.
On a seemingly unrelated matter, Hostetler hires detective Billy Taggart (Wahlberg) to follow his wife Cathleen (Zeta-Jones), whom he claims is having an affair.
Taggart, a former New York Police detective, had been acquitted seven years earlier of a charge of murdering a rapist after Hostetler and Chief of Police Carl Fairbanks (Wright) made evidence disappear.
He thinks he is in debt to Hostetler and follows Cathleen and photographs her meeting the coordinator of the Valliant campaign.
Soon afterwards the campaign manager is found shot to death and Taggart discovers the mayor has double crossed him and possibly involved him in the shooting.
He decides to investigate Hostetler’s corruption – with violent and dramatic results
You need to watch carefully to keep up with a convolution of plot and sub-plots but fine performances by Crowe, Wahlberg and the others make the effort worthwhile.
