'American Eyes' witness Hell !!!

Rating: 9/10 (5 January 2016)

'Sicario' is directed by the critically acclaimed filmmaker Denis Villeneuve and it is based on a screenplay written by Taylor Sheridan. Idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer(Emily Blunt) receives a top assignment when she gets recruited by a mysterious government official Matt Grover(Josh Brolin). Kate ends up joining a task force for the war against drugs. Led by the shadowy Alejandro(Benicio Del Toro), the team travels back and forth across the US-Mexican border with the objective of getting their hands on the top cartel bosses.
I have really liked Villeneuve's previous outings as a director. He has already shown that he has his own distinctive style. After watching 'Sicario', his already positive status in my head has been further enhanced and now I can genuinely say that he is one of the best filmmakers working today. Like 'Incendies', Villeneuve captures reality in the most visceral and brutal manner in 'Sicario'. Juárez gets captured in the most realistic and stripped down manner in this film. Roger Deakins' brilliant cinematography seamlessly complements Villeneuve's style. Even though what was being shown was at times downright disturbing, but I couldn't look away due to Villeneuve's command on the art of creating tension and Deakin's beautiful visuals.
Another very important aspect of the film to be admired is Taylor Sheridan's deeply meaningful script. Villeneuve allows the depth and the message of the script to come to the forefront by slowing down the pace of the film from time to time. This could have easily descended into a run-of-the-mill standard action thriller, but thankfully Sheridan's themes and Villeneuve's visual flair go hand in hand instead of one overpowering the other. The primary theme of the film is to address the reality of how blind the Americans and people from other 1st world countries can be to the grim realities of the backward nations and the people of these nations. We are unaware of the complexities of the problems that face the world and its people today. The unfortunate truth is that viewing the world's problems in black and white is no longer plausible. Especially when it comes to the drug importation problem, there is no other option but to maybe get our hands dirty by choosing the lesser evil to ensure the existence of some kind of order because eliminating the problem completely is almost impossible under the current situations. It paints a bleak, pessimistic but nevertheless a very poignant picture of the drug situation in the US borders. There is no chance to play by the book because the book itself has become obsolete.
Emily Blunt's character represents all of us. She gets thrown into the hell of Juárez and clearly she is not ready to handle the scenes, the events and the revelations that await her there. In the scene where she sees the horror that greets her on her first visit to Juárez, Villenueve used quick close-up shots of Blunt's face in between the sweeping shots of the streets to establish her shock at the sight of everything around her. It almost felt like a baby looking at the world which is unknown to him/her for the first time in amazement. Some critics have panned the film for making Kate a 'weak female character'. I completely disagree with that criticism. I don't think Kate was weak at all. She was a very skilled FBI officer who was idealistic and who wanted to do the 'right' thing by respecting the law in a Serpico- esque way. Even if her character would have been male, it wouldn't have made a difference in my eyes, because the main focus is not her gender, but her nationality and her moral sense in the context of the film. Josh Brolin uses his charisma and presence to make his character Matt quite intriguing. You never quite know what he is up to till the end. But for me the stand-out performance comes from Benicio Del Toro who plays Alejandro, the most mysterious character in the film. This might be Del Toro's best work in quite some time. Every gesture of his exudes control and dynamism. His character gets the most back story in the film and Del Toro excels in expressing the darkness behind those steely, brooding eyes.
Overall, I think 'Sicario' is undoubtedly one of the best films of 2015. It has brilliant characters with great actors portraying them. It has a virtuoso director at the helm with a screenplay that has depth. The film is dark, somewhat pessimistic in its themes and will leave the viewer a bit depressed and cold just like the mental condition that Blunt's character Kate descended into towards the end of the film, but that is what the film intends to do. Villeneuve and Sheridan want the viewer to face and experience the same dilemma that Kate goes through towards the end of the film and encounter the hopelessness of the real situation and needless to say they succeed with flying colours.