Crisis

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Crisis is a film with three branching storylines each with a message about opioids and how this drug is affecting America at different levels. One storyline tracks a university professor attempting to expose a harmful painkiller big pharma is bring to market, another shows a federal agent attempting to bust an opioid drug ring and the final story witnesses a former opioid-addicted mother investigating the overdose of her son. Initially I was thrown by the almost anthology style of presentation, but once you grow invested in the storylines this becomes an extremely engaging film to watch. If anything, breaking the story up across several contained smaller stories aids the pacing immensely. The grieving mother story and the federal story both follow similar paths, examining how the illegal sale of opioids invades communities and then pacing that back through the runners, suppliers and eventually distributors. Seeing a very personal, human story told in parallel to a tense, methodical crime story is a real master stroke because there is something in this for a majority of viewers. I often found myself incredibly moved by Claire's journey as she uncovers big and small details around her son's death, the scene in which she recounts how he died and what that experience would've been like is a powerful watch. At the same time watching Agent Jake Kelly desperately hold his undercover drug bust operation together by a thread, almost falling apart at several instances is a nail-biting watch that sets this film with more familiar and well-practised thriller elements. However, in spite of its isolation from the other storylines, the strength of a story about one university professor against a big pharma corporation is by far the most powerful storyline. Watching a man weigh the risks of basically imploding his life for the moral responsibility of reporting a harmful drugs risks before it goes on sale is a powerful watch, this is a figure who knows that he is going to lose and allows his life to be steadily dismantled anyway in an effort to do what is right. By the end of the film I had watched several wonderfully written and acted characters fight against opioids with varying success, the whole experience felt almost akin to harrowing and it was hard to face the reality of what this very real crisis actually looks like in America. The cinematography looks exceptionally crisp, drawing stark colour from a range of environments and keeping even basic dialogue exchanges engaging to watch.

 

Armie Hammer, who played Jake Kelly, is a stoic figure who plays well to the tough undercover federal agent role; Hammer's strength in this role is the severe desperation he portrays in trying to keep his character's operation together in spite of things steadily falling apart around him. Evangeline Lilly, who played Claire Reimann, is strongly motivated by grief in this film and portrays it in a truly moving manner; Lilly's intense fixation on justice and the truth marks her role as a compelling character and one of the truly interesting storylines to watch. Greg Kinnear, who played Dean Talbot, has a warm chemistry with Oldman onscreen that cements their characters friendship; I found the way Kinnear deconstructs this relationship and painfully betrays Oldman one of the more tragic aspects of that storyline. Guy Nadon, who played Mother, is quite an unpredictable and imposing crime boss antagonist; Nadon presents a highly paranoid figure who acts brazenly yet with a certain degree of cunning. Veronica Ferres, who played Dr. Meg Holmes, is fantastic as the main antagonist to Oldman; Ferres has this cold detached approach to fighting her battle that greatly contrasts Oldman's more frantic and concerned manner.

 

However, the best performance came from Gary Oldman, who played Dr. Tyrone Brower. This is a teacher figure at a university who immediately seems well liked and has an easy charisma in his classes. Oldman fixes his role as one who is well respected and respects those around him almost immediately, generating a warm aura in any scene he's in. However, when he begins pushing his findings that the drug he was testing for a big pharma company is not safe for public sale this role begins being treated like a ticking time bomb. Watching Oldman act with outrage and concern that his efforts to unveil the truth are being met with disgust, anger or indifference at every turn is easy to empathise with. This is a character who doesn't know how to navigate whistleblowing and reacts cautiously, but it isn't enough to prevent him from being torn apart by those he used to trust or even count on as friends. Seeing Oldman portray a man torn between the decision to salvage his reputation and job or do the right thing is a hard watch but remarkably well-executed by this acting veteran.

 

The most glaring flaw of Crisis is the branching narratives first and foremost, if you lose an audience member of any one of these threads then it is very easy to suddenly have a third of the film not expressly interesting to that aspect of the audience. I felt this quite strongly with the Federal drug bust story at first, it had this cold methodical execution to it that didn't hook me, it wasn't until there was some personal level of danger that I really became invested in this storyline. There is some frustration in that the big pharma storyline and the drug bust/grieving mother storylines don't crossover whatsoever. It leaves you with the impression that there were two ideas for a feature and neither was long enough for a script by itself. In saying this the weakness of the two storylines that do converge is probably how over the top their final act becomes when these characters collide; the big dhowdown becomes a little less grounded than the rest of the film making it an incompatible moment with the rest of the feature. The editing for the film can be inconsistent, ranging from a slow pace to some very abrupt cutting that leaves a peculiar flow to the events of the film. The score in this feature is practically non-existent and is mainly a discordant noise that you could easily tack on to any crime thriller. 

Michelle Rodriguez, who played Supervisor Garrett, does not fit the federal bureaucrat role whatsoever; Rodriguez struggles at matching the intensity of a performer like Hammer and doesn't seem at place in the collected leadership figure. Luke Evans, who played Dr. Bill Simons, seems completely miscast in this film; Evans doesn't feel like he is committed to being this big sales executive for big pharma and is strangely in the background of a lot of his scenes. Lily-Rose Depp, who played Emmie Kelly, gives the most cookie cutter portrayal of drug addiction I've ever seen; more than that you don't really see her and Hammer as siblings due to a complete lack of connection. Martin Donovan, who played Lawrence Morgan, feels like the potential for an intimidating figure but is severely underutilised; Donovan's stoic and at times generic portrayal of the wealth behind big pharma isn't as engaging as it could be. Eric Bruneau, who played Guy Broussard, is a pretty stereotypical drug-addicted gang member role; Bruneau's content with falling quietly into place ina scene and doesn't have the same intensity as Nadon for instance.

In spite of a very disjointed style of storytelling, this is a unique thriller that really holds a spotlight up to the current opioid crisis. I would give Crisis a 7.5/10.