While not a complete mess, 'Sicario' loses its focus on more than one occasion..

Rating: 5/10 (14 October 2015)

'Sicario' Misses the Target
'Sicario' is a U.S./Mexico border drama aboutwellI'm not sure what it's about, and that's the main problem with the film. It lack coherence and focus.
The film starts off centered on F.B.I. Agent Kate Macer and her desire for revenge. Then it becomes a film about the questionable morals of federal policing agencies on the border. Then it mutates into a revenge film about a completely different character. That might work if the plot was not so logically flawed. It might also work if we had more of a back-story on the characters.
In one scene, Agent Macer takes home a Phoenix cop. It's clearly a set up, and we are expected to believe a trained F.B.I. agent would fall for such an obvious ploy. There is nothing to suggest that she is easily fooled or that the people behind it are that clever. Besides, the plan relies on coincidence and there is no guarantee that it would work. It is based on stereotypical notions of female weakness and illogic and clashes with the notion that Macer is a tough agent. If we knew she had made mistakes of judgement in the past, it might have been more credible. However, almost no backstory is provided for her character.
Macer is a patsy, which is fine, but then why make her the main character? And if she is the main character, why move away from her entirely during a large portion of the film? It is because the film, for all its pretense at making a smart, complex drama is plot driven and the characters are secondary. Thus, the actions that the plot dictates don't make sense for who the characters are.
Visually, the film looks flat. Certainly, part of that is because of the filming in low-light situations. I wonder if it is also because some of it was filmed in HD video, or was it? The music is good, meaning, I didn't notice it. What holds this film together at all is the acting. Brolin, Blunt and Del Toro are as good a trio of actors as you can find in film, and they deliver. Too bad none of them are let off the reins so we can appreciate their talents.
Critics are fond of discussing the film they wanted to see and then slamming films for not satisfying their preconceptions. So, here it goes. The film needed to focus on either agent Macer or Alejandro (Del Toro) and complete their tale of revenge. Neither of these characters' actions are clever and in fact, they are quite predictable. Good thing the drug lords are easily duped and overpowered.
Rating: Rent it.
There is no reason to see this in the theater, except perhaps the beautiful overhead shots of the border between El Paso and Juarez. The film attempts to address large themes of betrayal, honor, corruption and revenged, but it misses the target.
Peace, Tex Shelters