Written by Ben Murchison
Triple Frontier tells the story retired Special Forces operatives that seize an opportunity to use their skillset to their own benefit and plan a heist of a cartel boss in the jungle where Peru, Brazil and Columbia meet (there is your title explanation). The film features an impressive ensemble cast, an interesting premise, and some beautiful scenery but unfortunately the potential of it all succumbs to contrived plot devices, absurdities and wavering moral dilemmas.
Finally given the green light by Netflix after close to a decade in development hell where names like Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Tom Hardy and more were rumored to be attached at various points with Kathryn Bigelow set to direct, ultimately it was director J.C. Chandor that brought writer Mark Boal’s story to the screen. What you see on screen visually is stunning. Cinematographer Roman Vasyanov captures the beauty of the jungle and Andes mountains along with pulling off stylish shots during very technical action sequences. Also aiding the film is that no expense was spared in selecting the soundtrack to accompany the story. It leads with Metallica’s “For Whom the Bel Tolls” to set the tone and adds songs by CCR, Pantera, Fleetwood Mac and even Bob Dylan. It’s a really cool score that really outshines the movie as a whole.
It takes a five-man team to carry out the mission that Pope (Oscar Isaac) dreams up after receiving intel from his beautiful informant Yovanna (Adria Arjona), and luckily, he has just that number of close friends that are down on their luck and bored with their lives that he can manipulate into joining him. The most fleshed out character of the bunch is Redfly (Ben Affleck) who we learn is divorced with financial problems. He’s the former leader of the group, and the best at reconnaissance and planning yet somehow could not translate that to his job in real-estate. Joining them are brothers Ironhead (Charlie Hunnam) and Benny (Garrett Hedlund) who didn’t get a cool callsign, which is rude, but whatever.
Ironhead spends his time giving speeches to soldiers that are transitioning back to civilian life and cautions them not to do exactly what he agrees to do and use their skills for operations outside of the government. He also keeps track of things like how many times he’s given his speech on proper grocery store etiquette and how many confirmed kills he has. Benny has become an MMA fighter and laughs a lot, but that’s really all we get with him, and to round out the team we have Catfish (Pedro Pascal) who likes cocaine and flying helicopters, perhaps at the same time.
While you probably enjoy the dynamic of the group, you aren’t particularly invested in any of them and any feelings you do have are closer linked to the actor themselves than the characters they are portraying. While they attempt to give you more insight into who these men are during some conversations had while they camp, it just seems too little too late and a bit out of place given the circumstances. It probably isn’t the best sign that one of the more emotionally taxing moments involves a donkey’s life hanging in the balance of the side of a cliff.
The first half of the film features Isaac in one of its better action sequences, before segueing into him getting the band back together so to speak and carrying out their dual heist and assassination. The operation at the house plays out like a cool Call of Duty mission including the team talking with each other on comms and tactically moving to find the money and Pope’s target Lorea (Reynaldo Gallegos). But fittingly at almost the exact midway point of the film, Affleck sets fire to the house and stands dramatically behind the flames to signal the beginning of the films collapse.
From that point they are tasked with getting their stolen money to their waiting boat and it turns into a marathon of irrational thinking from men who are supposed to be elite, and ill-timed temper tantrums with quick apologies. The stakes are high, but no one seems to have a firm grip on where their priorities, physical limitations or moral boundaries lie, and without giving things away you will likely find yourself asking, “why didn’t they just”, all the way through to the empty conclusion. The decline of the film isn’t the fault of the cast, as each one contributes the type of committed and earnest performance that has gotten them to their current status, but the fact that so many people cycled in and out of this project can likely be attributed to some choices that were taken with the screenplay.
While Triple Frontier does some things really well, it seems that the ten years it took to finally come to fruition could have allowed a second look at the script to clean up its weaknesses and flesh out its characters further. While it is nice to see so many talented actors reunited on screen, even they can’t help this movie reach its full potential.
