Bryan Cranston makes fact-based 'Infiltrator' work
Bryan Cranston breaks good in "The Infiltrator."
So good that his complex, in-the-moment portrait of real-life undercover drug agent Robert Mazur compensates for the deficiencies that prevent Brad Furman's fact-based crime drama from achieving genre greatness.
The deliberate pace - no doubt designed to make us feel immersed in Mazur's shadowy undercover world - operates barely above a drag.
Cops and drug dealers awkwardly insert exposition into forced dialogue, telling each other things they should already know.
Then, Cranston's age - more specifically, his time-chiseled features and obvious dye job to soften them - seems way too old for his character and begs some sort of explanation.
"The Infiltrator," adapted by Ellen Brown Furman from Mazur's memoir, details how, in 1986, Mazur realizes the U.S. government's war on illegal drug imports doesn't work.
Taking a "follow the money" tip from "All the President's Men," Mazur goes after the international bankers and money launderers who fund illegal drug operations.
Mazur creates a wonderful alter-ego for the job, Bob Musella, an amicable super-salesman loaded with charm, smarts, a lavish estate and, most important, the ability to launder tens of millions of dollars of cartel drugs through his network of legitimate businesses.
He quickly ascends the invisible ladder, eventually to its highest rung, occupied by the infamous Pablo Escobar.
"The Infiltrator" offers us the usual components in the formulaic undercover movie. Shocking violent acts. The obligatory scene where the hero's cover almost gets blown. The emotional conflicts between undercover life and the real one.
This is where "The Infiltrator" works best, as an exploration of the pressures on Mazur and his extremely understanding wife, Eve (Juliet Aubrey), plus two children.
To get out of a bind, Mazur's Musella invents a fiance, so now his boss (a tough-talking Amy Ryan) must supply one for him. Kathy Ertz (a luminously alluring Diane Kruger) has never been undercover. Yet, she poses as Musella's main squeeze as they befriend Escobar lieutenant Roberto Alcaino (Benjamin Bratt) and move into his wealthy inner circle, knowing that one tiny slip could kill them.
Directed with limited flair, "The Infiltrator" never achieves the tension it should, and a climactic scene in which Mazur and Ertz express remorse for setting up those smiling, happy drug dealers and money launderers at a fake wedding borders on syrupy.
Then, Cranston's multilayered performance - riddled with surprising choices, internal conflicts and external pressures - makes everything work. Rather well.
“The Infiltrator”
★ ★ ★
Starring: Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, Diane Kruger, Benjamin Bratt, Amy Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Juliet Aubrey
Directed by: Brad Furman
Other: A Broad Green Pictures release. Rated R for drug use, language, sexual situations, violence. 127 minutes