This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
The Whistleblower, the Avenger, and the Cop
Plot Overview
Northlight Pharmaceuticals Co. is finishing human trials for Klarilon their new
nonaddictive wonder drug, when Dr. Tyrone
Brower (Gary Oldman,) a science professor at a private Detroit university,
having approved it in earlier animal trials now discovers addictive
properties in a synthesized batch his researchers were using for a
comparison study. He will lose tenure if he comes forward with this damning
data, but his humanitarian side won't allow him to sit still.
Canadian drug kingpin Claude “Mother”
Veroche (Guy Nadon) runs a pill mill manufacturing its predecessor
Fentanyl for shipment across the border. DEA undercover agent Jake Kelly
(Armie Hammer) is pressing Mother for a large shipment to entrap
him and his minions, but his superiors have given him a strict time
limit that he might not be able to adhere to. Meanwhile, his
sister Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp) is strung out on Oxy and has a penchant for ditching her rehab program.
Detroit single mom Miss Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly) is off drugs but she still attends meetings—she must. She's an architect now and is raising her sixteen-year-old son David (Billy Bryk) whose passion is sports. He is looking into scholarships and attends sports camp in Canada where he joins some other kids for a day trip, unwittingly transporting dope for them secreted in his pack. When one of them gets busted on a later run, a paranoid “Mother” decides to eliminate loose ends, which unfortunately for him, includes this mother's son, and she is not about to take it lying down.
Ideology
Jake is less than satisfied with the hellish outcome of his hurried sting (“You realize how [effed] this is”) but he rises above it to secure a more copacetic result (“It's gonna be okay.”) He's like the homicide detective in a Stephen Jay Schwartz novel where: “It was not that he lacked a code of ethics, but that the code was his own and it was malleable. He justified all questions of honesty and protocol with one simple fact: it would ultimately bring justice for the victims. He never professed to be a saint and in his world the end did justify the means” (130). (Prov. 15:24) “The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.”
(Prov. 15:25) “The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.” “Mother” filled with pride meets an untimely end, but the single mom gets bandaged up and somehow avoids prison.
(Prov. 15:26) “The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD: but the words of the pure are pleasant words.” The hoodlums curse a blue streak and curse God, but the academically pure professor is punctiliously polite in speech and in this movie only curses once, and that in extremis and not at God.
(Prov. 15:27) “He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.” Dean Talbot (Greg Kinnear) intent on the bottom line is ultimately asked to resign, but Dr. Brower after forcibly rejecting a generous grant offered to buy his silence, is scooped up by a better school.
(Prov. 15:28) “The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.” An FDA panel convened to recommend a questioned drug's approval muzzles the professor who reasonably requests to present his findings and instead they defame him and his research.
Production Values
“” (2021) was written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki. It stars Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer and Evangeline Lilly. Also completing the cast are Indira Varma, John Ralston, Martin Donovan, Mia Kirshner, Kid Cudi, Michael Aronov, Luke Evans, and Veronica Ferres. It's a mix of good actors each with a needed part not upstaging the others.
MPAA rated it R for drug content, violence, and language throughout. Careful editing rotated around the various scenarios without jarring the audience overmuch. We could quickly orient ourselves to the changing frameworks and there were intertitles in places and building names. Recognizable faces helped, too.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This is a societal drama exploring the individual, parental, familial, medical, scientific, corporate, criminal and law enforcement responsibilities for the opioid crisis. We might include religion implicit in the twelve step program as the higher power is called upon as the members conceive it to be. If the movie offered any solution, it escaped me, but it sure gave one a lot to think about. There was enough action to spice it up but not so much as to distract. It's a thinking man's drama more than a nail-biter action flick.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Schwartz, Stephen Jay. Boulevard. Copyright © 2009 by Stephen Jay Schwartz. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2009. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org