Movie Review The Line (2017)
Friday, March 2, 2018
Movie Review - The Line Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★
 | ||
| The Line (2017) |
The Line - Movie 2017
The unstable new kingpin of a Tijuana drug cartel is targeted by an assassin for elimination.
Reviews :
The use of Mexican/US drug wars as a catalyst may have caused some viewers to think that this is a routine gritty crime movie but the writer(s) wanted something epic, life and death, which these ravaging drug wars are, to put the bigger theme of Family into high relief.
- As to the
casting, I appreciate it whenever actors challenge what they've already
done twenty times, so I rather liked the choice that Andy Garcia made in
particular, I do not think he was wasted at all. Liotta played his
assassin's part almost as a mute - and that too is not an accident or a
poor reading on his part, ie. who is his foil? It's the striking Mexican
prostitute, her life is the battleground that all the other actors
cross over, disrupt, shred, and yet she is the one who communicates to
us, the viewer, what Liotta is going through, we understand him through
her empathy with him. I think that this film is worth watching just to
see how Liotta and Cruz pull it off. The title itself, the "line," is in
my opinion, refers not to geography but the line crisscrossing over
lives of real people like Cruz, it is her life encapsulated for us to
see where the real terror and horror of these drug wars are fought, not
some convenient metaphor of a border between countries.
However, of all the cast, and it was a remarkably competent one, the stunner for me had to be Pelon, every second of screen time Esai Morales was riveting, pathetic, tragic, and desperate and in many ways the male parallel of destruction in this environment that we see with Cruz's character. Even Assante's seemingly minor role became the pivot I never saw coming. It never ceases to amaze me how many gears this actor has to work with, be it over the top charm or almost a stunted shell of a man, merely existing on autopilot, he nails the human drama of that life every time.
So, don't view this film as some gritty routine action throwaway, as if it were Dumb and Dumber with guns. There were times when I did wish they had had a different film editor to better layer the many simultaneous story lines so that we wouldn't lose or confuse the underlying theme of Family. Then again, most films that endeavor to be a persuasive emotional and intellectual "experience" and not just a couple hours spent in leisure mode are not one-offs, view once and move on. They become a new film every time you view it, they grow as you do, they reveal details that you missed the first time. They may even change entirely once you do see it from say the perspective of Family or blood feuds or revenge or even exposing the moral decay of a human who no longer has family?
A final thought, any film that attempts to do things differently, from cast to writing, to choices in character development, to cultures too often passed over as one-dimensional, impresses me tremendously. Give this one a look, and let it tell you a story or stories, that you aren't telling the director is the one you want, but the one they want to tell you. - The plot line is hard to follow but it should be given the chaos of the subject matter. I was totally fooled by the ending. Knew the priest was up to no good early on but couldn't have guessed to what extent. Armand, I've never seen you do bad so well. Ray, I thought were washed up and over the hill. Excellent work. Brilliant. Thought you were dead!
- Genres : Drama, Adventure, Action
- Director : James Cotten
- Starring : Ray Liotta, Andy Garcia
- Studio : Project One Film
- Subtitles : English
- Movie Review The Line (2017)
Description
: Movie Review The Line (2017)
Rating
: 4.5
Reviewer
: Bey Alhamdi
ItemReviewed
: Movie Review The Line (2017)
