“Triple 9” is an unfocused cops-and-criminals / heist story that deflates the longer it runs. And it runs long, clocking in at about two hours that feel like four. It's hard to see why. Directed by John Hilcoat (he of the gritty Western "The Proposition," the Cormac McCarthy adaptation "The Road" and the Prohibition drama "Lawless"), written by first-timer Matt Cook and starring a murderer's row of men (Including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Woody Harrelson, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Clifton Collins Jr., Norman Reedus and an unimaginably hunky Casey Affleck), "Triple 9" has all the talent but fails to deliver on any of it.
There are several main characters in “Triple 9,” but the story is primarily centered around two: Michael Belmont (Ejiofor), an ex-spec ops turned soldier-of-fortune who executes heists at the behest of the Russian mob, and Chris Allen (Affleck), an ex-soldier turned rookie cop on the hard streets of Atlanta. When Belmont's last big job becomes entwined with his personal life, he has to go against his morals and plan the murder of a cop (a 9-9-9) to distract the authorities. By circumstance, Allen becomes the cop in his Belmont's crew's crosshairs.
Belmont, moral heist-guy tripped up with the wrong backers, has the most interesting story. It is a tried-and-true story nonetheless elevated by the presence of Ejiofor, along with his crew, played by Mackie, Paul, Reedus and Collins. Each one of these actors is so talented and charismatic that their scenes together feel pulled from a much better movie. The opening scene, a bank heist, is easily the highlight. But as “Triple 9” plods along, introducing Affleck (and Harrelson in a strange and at-times inexplicable role as his chief of police and uncle), the story gets bogged down with too many stories being told at once.
Act III pivots the narrative focus almost entirely to Affleck's rookie cop. It's here that “Triple 9” begins to overstay its welcome. While Affleck is a fine actor (certainly better than his brother), he's white meat, and so is his character. Cook and Hillcoat try their best to tackle the presence of racial tensions in the Atlanta police force, but choosing to make the movie pivot from a group of actors of color with interesting stories to a blandly white "hero cop" shunts all those themes to the side. It becomes "white fish out of water" for a spell. There is a lot of missed potential in “Triple 9,” but the odd approach to race, policing and criminality is by far the most significant.
Hillcoat's previous movies have always had much going for them. "The Proposition" and "The Road" are masterpieces of desperation and distress, mood and monstrousness. "Lawless," his 2013 prohibition crime movie, was less successful but nonetheless engaging, boasting a similarly talented cast and a cartoonish turn by Guy Pearce as a nasty fed. "Triple 9" feels like Hillcoat spent his time off watching "The Shield" and adopts a lot of the gritty-noir elements of modern cop drama. Close-ups! Shaky camera! Sweat! Quick cuts! There's artistry on display but it is the disappointing result of a proven artist adopting someone else's techniques instead of confidently asserting his own.
I wrote in my review of "Lawless" that Hillcoat's movies always focus on Men (huff huff, violence, masculinity, honor, huff huff) and he's great at doing so, but he has problems with female characters. While Kate Winslet plays a great monstrous Russian mob-woman, most of the women in "Triple 9" are, well, simply on display. There are ways to explore masculinity and masculine desires without undercutting women (without making them men, like last year's similarly dour and dull "Sicario"), but "Triple 9" fails to do anything remotely interesting. For a movie dripping in men's sweat, it feels particularly disappointing (if not unsurprising) that two-thirds of the women are so lazily treated. We've moved on as audiences, and Hilcoat needs to move on as a director.
If “Triple 9” was a taut, exciting thriller or a spectacle, its thematic, social and stylistic lousiness would be excusable on a basic visceral level. But “Triple 9” never takes off. After the first, thrilling heist, the movie slows to a crawl. Characters talk about heists and plots a lot, but when the action happens, it feels perfunctory. The heist and cop-versus-criminal genres have been perfected; a new movie or TV series needs to really bring something beyond talented actors and a great director to make an impression. Grunty men talking about loving their families, sexy ladies showing butt and loud gunfire just don't cut the mustard.
Someone call a 9-9-9 for "Triple 9."