2020 seems to be the year of action film throwbacks. First we had Bad Boys for Life, then the sadly-delayed back-to-basics Bond film No Time to Die, and now, we have the Netflix exclusive Spenser Confidential, the fifth action collaboration between Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg.
The film follows Spenser (Mark Wahlberg), a disgraced Boston police officer-turned private investigator, who teams up with his amateur boxer roommate Hawk (Winston Duke) and his former boss Henry (Alan Arkin) to investigate the murder-suicide of a police captain he used to work for. Once they investigate and take down the guilty parties, they fall into a world of illegal deals, casinos, and “dirty cops.” While this premise sounds good, the script is overall just mediocre. The story and formula around the “conspiracy” is so obvious and overwhelmed with common action tropes, and it’s rather unsatisfying to watch because the characters don’t get any of their deserved punishments or rewards by the end. It’s an action comedy for sure, something that can be guessed right from the cover and trailer appearing on your Netflix homepage, but the serious and humorous moments in dialogue have very different amounts of quality, with the latter being some of the film’s stronger points. Another thing that is irritating is the constant use of flashbacks relating to the murder-suicide, flashbacks with no clear distinction from the regular scenes to be exact, which makes the film kind of hard to follow and flawed in terms of pacing and structure.
However, everything else about this film makes it shine more than your typical action film. For starters, the action feels very restrained. Compared to your over-the-top action blockbusters, this film doesn’t over-rely on blood, gore, bombs, and guns. Don’t get me wrong, it has all four of them, but every action and fight scene feels meaningful and realistic, and has some sort of value to the plot and task at hand. Some may take this for granted and watch it for the plot and cast, but it’s more of a rarity to appreciate than you may think. The soundtrack is great too, doing for classic rock what Playing With Fire (which I reviewed last year) did to 1990s punk rock. Bands like Aerosmith, Boston, Sweet, and Ram Jam grace some of the film’s best scenes, as well as Neil Diamond’s one-hit wonder “Sweet Caroline”, which you will never hear the same way again after watching this.
The performances are great, too. I can think of many times where Mark Wahlberg has made me angry or annoyed but this film makes up for at least half of them. Winston Duke continues his streak of great supporting performances that films like Us started, and has great chemistry with Wahlberg. You can’t mention positives in the cast, however, without mentioning comedian Iliza Shlesinger, who plays Spenser’s trashy yet surprisingly helpful ex-girlfriend Cissy. She taps into the role of the “white trash girl from Boston” incredibly well, with a fake Boston accent that feels extremely real, and goes above and beyond to make her character seem more interesting than it may seem on paper. This is the second big film that she’s done, and after her performance here I hope she’s in way more films.
I feel like this whole film is a throwback, however, to the classic action flicks of the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Everything from the story-based action to the overused villain archetypes to the chemistry of the main cast feels like a re-hash of films like Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon, and The Last Boy Scout (this one especially). Despite that, it manages to be original in terms of the story, even if it’s far from perfect. The film seems to celebrate its inspirations and influences through its usage of tropes, and become an homage to a long-lost era. In that sense, it’s a much better film than it seems to let on.
3.5/5 STARS