That woman annoyed me so much!

Rating: 7/10 (24 September 2015)

An FBI SWAT squad raids a house in Arizona related to a Mexican Drugs cartel: they find 42 bodies before an explosion kills 2 of them. Team leader Kate (Emily Blunt) is recruited by Matt (Josh Brolin) to join a multi-agency task force to take on assorted cartel matters. She becomes disturbed by the way the task force, especially the mysterious Alejando (Benicio del Toro), appears to ignore established law enforcement protocols.
This film is brilliantly directed (by Denis Villeneuve) with eyecatching cinematography (by Roger Deakins), and the action setpieces are strikingly well staged, with some stunning aerial photography. That element of this film is flawless.
Then there is the intertwined plot thread about Kate's moral ambivalence towards what this group is engaged in. I understand that this is an important part of the film – it may even be the entire point of the film – but I found it tiresome. Specifically, I found Kate's character profoundly irritating. She was told on a number of occasions, "If you don't like what we do and the way we do it, you don't have to be here," yet she continued to be part of the team while, at the same time, constantly questioning, arguing, disagreeing and undermining her teammates. I had a great deal of trouble getting past that and, for me, it made the film a less enjoyable experience than it would otherwise have been.
I guess I am simply too superficial to appreciate something for the morally ambiguous subtext it presents me with.