Dark, effective thriller

Rating: 8/10 (19 October 2019)

Emily Blunt is Kate Macer, an FBI agent who volunteers for an interagency operation designed to bring down the head of a vicious Mexican cartel only to find that the rules by which her new colleagues play are very different than hers. The story is brutal, gripping' and plausible (by movie standards) although there are a few unnecessary coincidences that should have been written out or set up better (despite their efficiency and resources, the cartel heavies don't seem very well prepared at times) and the premise that a document signed at gunpoint would have any merit in an investigation seems ludicrous (of course, if the signer was then 'found dead of suicide', the document would carry more weight - an alternative outcome to the scene that (IMHO) would have been shockingly awesome). The cast is good, especially Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin but I found Blunt's character to be oddly peripheral to the story and not all that interesting. The cinematography is excellent and the action sequences gripping, all back-dropped by an excellent, tension-building score. Nice work by director Denis Villeneuve.