The Infiltrator

(Warning: contains spoilers for The Infiltrator)

There are roles that so consume an actor, that it is almost impossible to watch anything else they do without seeing the more defining character.  Examples include Anthony Hopkins (always Hannibal Lecter), Daniel Radcliffe (always Harry Potter, but is trying his damnedest to shake him), Tom Cruise (always Tom Cruise).  So too with Bryan Cranston – who is now so synonymous with Breaking Bad’s Walter White that it seems a little hypocritical when he turns up in The Infiltrator, as US undercover customs agent Robert Mazur, determined to take down the world’s largest drug cartel.  Really, Heisenberg?  Really?

Drugs are bad.  Or good.  Can't remember.

It’s an interesting enough premise for the based-on-a-true-story film.  Mazur has made a career out of infiltrating various criminal gangs, and taking them down, while surrounded by confidential informants (Joe Gilgun, John Leguizamo) who give him legitimacy in the underworld.  And as his last great hurrah, he decides to follow the money (rather than the drugs) and take down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, who were instrumental in helping fund Pablo Escobar’s drug empire.  Along the way he is assigned a fiancé (Diane Kruger) to give his story of being a money laundering businessman further legitimacy.  Adventures ensue.

It’s a perfectly good film, with strong performances from all involved (including Benjamin Bratt as one of Escobar’s main agents).  But the script is a bit clunky, it lacks tension, and there’s a better story to be told.  In fact, it seems that there’s possibly a couple of different ways to make this a much better story.  For example:

1. Ratchet up the tension that there must have been in the real-life version (this should have been hugely exciting.  It’s not.)  Mazur doesn’t appear to ever be doubted. “Oh you’re a random stranger offering to launder all my illegitimate cash?  Sure, have it.  Cheers, helpful stranger.”
2. Explore the ramifications of the undercover life on an agent and his family (Mazur has real life wife and children, but is assigned an undercover fiancé.  There are obvious tensions, which is an interesting but abandoned storyline).
3. Consider the longer term implications of the undercover lifestyle – Mazur’s undercover fiancé becomes friends with the wives and girlfriends of the cartel, and struggles with the knowledge that soon her new friends will all be in prison because of her.  Another interesting but abandoned storyline.        
4. Look at the relationship between Mazur and his informants – he doesn’t particularly like them, and it’s unclear how they feel about him, but they both rely on each other.  Surely that’s worth having a look at?

The film ends with those information shots that tell you about what happened to all the people involved.  And they’re really interesting.  So much so, that it’s disappointing that the film hasn’t done more to make those conclusions feel like a worthy payoff.

Attempts to break good go bad.