Listless with Crowe


Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta Jones
At: PVR & others
Rated: 5/10
It’s a splashy starcast which couldn’t have gotten any bigger than it is. And, considering that the film is a next to nothing effort which douses what could have been a gripping politico-criminal thriller, one wonders why an actor of Russel Crowe’s worth would sign up for such an unhappening and lax script.
Aiding and abetting him in this lost cause is none other than Catherine Zeta Jones who, as the corrupt and criminal mayor’s stunning wife has only a two bit role to play.
Mark Wahlberg as the private eye hired by Crowe to ostensibly spy on his adulterous wife brings in some weight to a film which otherwise hurtles in dark alleys and darer problems. Films on land sharks with political backgounds are neither new nor few in Hollywood. So, this one joins the many which have preceded it, though it does so with far less gravitas. And if Crowe can’t get you gravitas with his unusual brand of histrionics there has to be something very wrong with the film which is the case with Broken City.
On the whole, however, the wow element of the starcast takes you though the film which has only some riveting moments. An average outing.
Source: Published in Sunday Pioneer, 20 January, 2013
 

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