For those not in the know, the title Triple 9 refers to the police code which indicates that an officer has been killed in the line of duty. The film surrounds a group of thieves who plan to commit a robbery by shooting and killing an officer on the other side of town so that, as police protocol dictates, all available units will converge on the scene of the downed officer and will not be available to stop the robbery.
What director John Hillcoat has managed, from a script by Matt Cook, is a proficiently mounted film that’s flaws prevent it from being as lean and mean as it maybe could’ve been. One of the biggest assets and flaws that this film has is its cast.
On the well-cast side are Casey Affleck as the newbie detective targeted by the gang, Anthony Mackie as a crooked cop, Woody Harrelson as a drunken robbery detective and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the gang leader.
Lost in the shuffle are Kate Winslet, miscast as a hammy Jewish-Russian mobster, Teresa Palmer as Affleck’s supportive wife (and that’s about it) and Aaron Paul, who should excel in his role as a crackhead, yet somehow never manages above caricature.
Winslet’s role is the most puzzling. The entire Jewish-Russian mafia side plot not only seems unnecessary in a movie that already includes an inter-generational cop drama, multiple double-crossings, several heist scenes and a rookie-on-the-job drama. Most of these elements are handled well.
Yet, whenever the Jewish mob shows up not only are they portrayed as having stereotypical Russian bad guy accents, but they just seem to be another antagonist in a movie where the people on screen are compelling enough.
I’m trying to talk guardedly about this movie, because if you see the advertisements or read my review and feel compelled to see the film, I don’t want to be the one to spoil some of the interesting twists and turns that are to be found within the weaving narrative.
The film looks impressive. All of the robbery sequences and big set pieces are handled smoothly. At its highest aspirations, all Triple 9 seems to be aiming for pulp enjoyment. It mostly succeeds.
Despite some pacing problems in the middle and (I promise this is the last time I’ll bring it up) a miscalculated mafia subplot, Hillcoat has crafted some interesting movements within this opera of the streets. He manages the performers well.
Anthony Mackie and Chiwetel Ejiofor don’t know how to be bad in a movie. Affleck has mastered the art of playing the strong, silent type. But, to me at least, the real MVP of this picture is Woody Harrelson. Harrelson is one of those few actors who can play drunk without going into cartoony slurring and stumbling.
He can go from playing one type of troubled officer on True Detective and bring a completely different, yet no less compelling and empathetic. While we normally don’t give these kinds of ratings on this particular news staff, I suppose if I were to have to rank this movie on some sort of scale, I would give it a C+.
There is nothing egregiously terrible about this film, yet I suspect by the end of this year Triple 9 will have drifted into the back of my mind, having been replaced by other films.
This is the kind of movie that I would recommend to someone looking for a good way to spend their evening viewing a film on Netflix or on television. It’s good, but I doubt its staying power.
Brian Laughran
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