The Instigators
Matt Damon and Casey Affleck team up for a mildly agreeable caper comedy with a smattering of mental health positivity, courtesy of an assist from Hong Chau.
When I’m not movie critiquing, I work in healthcare for a nonprofit with a 50+ year legacy of mental health services, so I’m very big on people reaching out for help. I’ve partaken of therapy, both solo and as a couple, and each of our boys have received counseling, too. So no stigma here.
That said, the recent-ish thing in movies and shows of having characters interacting with their mental health professional has been a mixed bag, imho. “The Sopranos” first popularized it, taking a mook gangster and making him relatable by having a shrink, and we’ve seen it more and more as a storytelling tool… or crutch, as it may be.
“The Instigators” is, on its face, a pretty standard caper comedy, a buddy cop movie except the main characters are thieves, not police. It’s amazing how little it seems to matter what side of the law they’re on, though, the genres are so similar.
It stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, the latter of whom also co-wrote the screenplay with Chuck Maclean. Director Doug Liman (“The Bourne Identity,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) is an old, steady hand at mixing action, comedy and darker themes. In typical heist flick form, our antiheroes get recruited for a big score but then everything goes to crap, and they spend the rest of the movie trying to set things right.
The twist is that Damon’s character, Rory, is an ex-Marine who’s at the bottom of a long spiral and is upfront about the fact that he’s about ready to, as he puts it, “punch my ticket.” Cobby (Affleck), the drunken career thief he’s thrown in with, initially thinks it’s funny that Rory is seeing a shrink but starts to think that maybe he needs one, too.
Hong Chau, an Oscar nominee for “The Whale,” comes into the story as Rory’s psychiatrist, Donna Rivera. We see her at the beginning and I thought it was going to be just a bit part, but then she turns up again in the middle of the movie and follows along with the boys the rest of the way, even getting caught up in their flight from the law.
“The Instigators” will have a limited theatrical run starting this Friday before being released on the Apple TV+ platform Aug. 9.
The movie’s got an absolutely fantastic supporting cast, virtually every background role filled by notable thespian. They add a lot of color and richness to the film. The list includes Ron Perlman as the corrupt Boston mayor; Ving Rhames as his uncompromising police special unit enforcer; Toby Jones as the mayor’s lawyer/lickspittle; Michael Stuhlbarg as the minor crimelord who organizes the heist; Alfred Molina as his calculating right-hand man; and Paul Walter Hauser as a hitman with a greatly outsized sense of his own skillset.
Alas, the two guys at the front of the stage are much less interesting than the chorus.
Affleck and Damon have an easy rapport, after their characters initially butting heads. Rory is new to the crime life and asks a lot of annoying questions about the job — to rob the mayor of his kickbacks on the night of the primary election — and even insists on taking notes. Cobby is a boozer who refers to the place he hangs every day as “my bar” and has a breathalyzer hooked up to to his motorcycle so it won’t start unless he blows sober. Look for some interesting/funny ways around that.
Part of the problem is we hear each guy talking a little about their past trauma and hang-ups, but we don’t actually see any of it. So it doesn’t really register emotionally with the audience. Never tell when you can show.
Rory is divorced and estranged from his son, and is looking for a specific amount of money — $32,480 — as his share of the score so he can settle up his child support back payments and other obligations; otherwise he feels like he doesn’t deserve to act the father.
Cobby did some hard time a few years back, ironically for a crime he didn’t actually do but ‘fessed to anyway, and rather than carry around the nobility of that act it’s become an anchor on his soul.
When things go badly south during the job, they turn to Dr. Rivera for some physical doctoring, but she insists on providing the mental health portion, too. This leads to some strange setups where Rory and her each pretend that he’s taken her as his hostage. She and Cobby go at it pretty good verbally, possibly with some romantic undertones that surprise them both.
The movie nicely shows off the creased charm of Boston and Quincy, the landscape and sharp-edged personalities of the denizens. Damon and Affleck, both Southies, slip into the accent and vibe like sliding into a favorite pub booth.
“The Instigators” is better enjoyed for its mood and flavor than any specific storytelling hoops it jumps through. Rory and Cobby are pretty inept thieves but hanging around with them is not unpleasant. I still think having someone around to tell them what their problems are rather than figuring them out on their own is the right call for real life, but not the movies.