For those unfamiliar with writer/director, J. C. Chandor, he’s been a critical darling for a while, but he has yet to really get mainstream attention because his movies usually take certain familiar ideas and stories, and tells them in a way that goes against expectations. Margin Call was a film about the financial crisis that, unlike The Big Short’s essayist approach, kept the dialogue and interaction squarely in the context of Wall Street insiders with no formal exposition or audience surrogate. All Is Lost is a pretty standard survival-at-sea picture, except there is no dialogue spoken through the entire 105 minute runtime (except for one beautifully executed f-bomb). And A Most Violent Year…was actually not violent at all.
Joking aside, having seen and mostly admired Chandor’s work through the years, it makes his involvement with Triple Frontier that much more unexpected. It was initially meant to be helmed by Kathryn Bigelow, who is now just credited as an executive producer, along with her frequent collaborator, Mark Boal, who still shares a writing credit with Chandor. I say it’s unexpected because for most of the first half, it plays pretty much exactly as you would expect for a film like this. A bunch of macho vets, led by Pope (Oscar Issac) devise a plan to sneak into the home of a Colombian drug lord, so they can steal the millions upon millions of dollars that he stores inside.
For that first half, it’s pure, muscular filmmaking, which is admittedly something I didn’t think someone like Chandor had in him. He knows how to tap into the satisfaction of seeing these men prepare and execute this plan to get the money. However, it isn’t until after the heist where it becomes more clear what Chandor saw in the project.
Normally, you would expect a heist to go wrong because duh, but here, the heist – while messier than intended – is executed without any major issues. They get out with the money, and they make their way to a boat that’s waiting for them. That’s where the problems start kicking in, and things keep escalating from there. It’s a sort of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too situation where the film indulges in the high octane action and stoic badasses at the center of it, but then it flips things around after the heist where the sloppiness begins to show consequences, the characters show more vulnerability, and their hopes for a successful mission slowly but surely begins crashing down. There are moments throughout that does dive into the idea of the military industrial complex chewing up and spitting out men, leaving them unprepared to deal with the ramifications of their decisions in a healthy way. Although, it’s mostly subtext, as the film largely keeps a sharp focus on them trying to get a handle on the mission.
The film is very well made, mostly thanks to the cinematography from Roman Vasyanov, who effortlessly immerses you in the landscape, giving you a sense of the scope of the story. The music from Disasterpeace, who you might know from It Follows, is appropriately propulsive and captures the foreboding nature of the events as they unfold. The tension is also certainly felt during a number of key sequences, especially after the heist.
The few problems with the film are mostly rooted in a lack of characterization. Aside from Isaac and Affleck, the group consists of Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal. All these guys are great, but the film lives and dies on the fact that you enjoy seeing these guys work together. There isn’t much on the page differentiating one guy from another. It makes it a little hard to latch onto anyone, and it also makes the proceedings a bit monotonous. The film has a aura of doom and gloom from beginning to end, and having a variety of unique characters would’ve helped made the ride that much more worth investing in. Even having a sense of humor – à la Kelly’s Heroes or Three Kings – would’ve been a welcomed choice.
Triple Frontier isn’t my favorite J. C. Chandor flick by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s still pretty damn good. I was surprised at how taut and effective his chops as an action director are, and it would be cool to see him tap into that for another project. His sense of introspective and character-driven storytelling is utilized well here, and despite a few flaws, it remains engaging throughout. It’s cool to see these guys bounce off one another and butt heads on occasion as they try desperately to transport the money. It plays with expectations in an interesting way, but doesn’t necessarily transcend them. I wish it were stronger, but it’s a rock solid watch that will be a neat little surprise for anyone who stumbles on it while browsing through Netflix.