Cake is delicious. There is nary a soul who would deny that. Yet cake is comprised of ingredients that’d be disgusting if you ate them one at a time. “Broken City” proves to be the exact opposite of this. It contains many great components, with charismatic performers, stellar cinematography, and an interesting concept. But the end result is a half-baked mess.
“Broken City” is something of a throwback to earlier, greater noir films. Mark Wahlberg is Billy Taggart, an ex-cop turned private eye. He’s no longer on the force due to a controversial shooting, which the movie slowly informs us about throughout it. The Mayor, entertainingly portrayed by Russell Crowe, supports Billy, and pulls some strings to have the charges dropped.
But Billy is still fired, so he takes up shop as a private detective. This mostly involves him taking pictures of cheating spouses. But then out of the blue the Mayor calls him up, with an unusual request. He’s in the middle of a reelection campaign, and he wants to know, before his opposition, if his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is cheating on him. If Billy brings back proof of his suspicions? $50 grand.
Billy accepts the job offer, and after trailing the Mayor’s wife, soon finds her fraternizing with the opposition’s campaign manager. But it isn’t what is appears to be, and the movie descends into a confusingly chaotic web of corruption and betrayals. It was also here where I lost interest.
“Broken City” is unfortunate lows, where the occasional high just isn’t enough. Wahlberg and especially Crowe give good performances, ones consisting of true commitment and detailed nuance. But the acting from Catherine Zeta-Jones and Barry Pepper (as the Mayor’s opponent) is underwritten and overwrought.
Most of the film’s sins lie in the screenplay. The plot starts off well, but the heavy-handed storytelling clobbers them into oblivion. For example, the opposition, who you’re supposed to root for, is named Jack Valiant. Could that possibly be a hint?
But the main issue is the odd combination of simplicity and complexity. The characters are mostly thinly sketched, but the plot is a convoluted heap that requires one writing notes to keep track of it. I came into this movie with high expectations, and I left with a singular thought repeating in my mind; this is the only Russell Crowe movie I didn’t like.