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'Triple 9' - Movie Review

Updated on: 11 March,2016 04:05 PM IST  | 
Johnson Thomas | mailbag@mid-day.com

The treatment employed for 'Triple 9' is as brutal as the story immortalised within. You may not love this movie but there's no way you can remain unaffected by it either

'Triple 9' - Movie Review

'Triple 9'
A; Action-drama
Director: John Hillcoat
Cast: Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Anthony Mackie, Woody Harrelson, Aaron Paul, Kate Winslet, Norman Reedus, Gal Gadot, Teresa Palmer
Rating: 3/5


Triple 9 Movie Review
'Triple 9' poster. Pic/Santa Banta


This crime drama set in Georgia, USA underlines the corrupt core within the justice system where cops get blackmailed into committing crimes they were sworn-in to protect.


A group of Russian gangsters led by Irina (Kate Winslet), while husband and gang leader Vasily is under incarceration, find the chinks in a set of corrupt cops and blackmails them into pulling off a difficult heist. The first one goes off well despite a small overlook and this emboldens Irina to demand a second heist from the intemperate group consisting of homicide detectives Marcus Belmont (Anthony Mackie), Jorge Rodriguez (Clifton Collins Jr.) alongside ex-military operatives Michael Atwood (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Russel Welch (Norman Reedus) and including Russel’s younger brother, ex-cop Gabe (Aaron Paul). But the second job calls for a higher degree of risk and could set off alarms though out the force. It calls for fabricating a ‘999’ ‘officer down’ call which in effect would draw all the armed cops away from the scene of the ongoing crime giving the perpetrators enough of a window of opportunity for an orchestrated escape. Unfortunately, that’s not how it turns out though.

Director John Hillcoat draws on a relentless dose of crusty intensity to narrate this dark and seemingly shadowy journey through the seedy underground teeming with mobsters, cops and bloody annihilation. Chris Allen (Casey Affleck), is the one honest police officer in the rotten basket while his veteran cop uncle Sgt. Detective Jeff Allen (Woody Harrelson), is the one who takes on the onus of investigating the case. They are the bright spots in what is a dark and dehumanizing array of designer nihilism fashioned though a vigorous mix of conventional frames mixed with hand-held savagery. It’s not exactly comfortable viewing but it does the job of showcasing the brutality that lies beneath the surface glow of a rotten system. The visuals are stark and brutal in affect and the background score pulsates with a subliminal dread that comes to the fore. We never get an inkling as to the back stories of each of the characters and that’s a major flaw so-to-speak but the treatment is such that there’s no time to even dwell on that aspect. Everything happens with significant punctuations and at the end there’s hardly anyone left standing. This is more of an ensemble act and each actor does his/her bit to strengthen the dark power of the narrative. The treatment employed for ‘Triple 9’ is as brutal as the story immortalised within. You may not love this movie but there’s no way you can remain unaffected by it either.

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