V I C E
Movie Reviews
Michael Mann is probably the most skilled digital director working today. He is at the spearhead of a digital revolution that is taking place in the movie business right now, a revolution that is sparking outrage amongst “old-fashioned” filmmakers who are sticking to 35mm film cameras.
Mann has made it clear that digital is not the only way. In switching to digital photography he is not suggesting that 35mm is obsolete, he is merely exploring his options as a filmmaker. In the same way that many directors fill their 35mm canvas with special effects and CGI, so Mann uses digital photography and unravels live, meticulously choreographed action.
With “Miami Vice,” Mann revives the television show he created himself, and gives it a dark, lurid update. This “Vice” features a razor-edged, complex script that leads us into the underworld of drug smuggling and undercover agencies.
In the film, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx are Sonny Crocket and Ricardo Tubbs respectively. They play undercover cops out of Miami – of course – and are posing as drug smugglers to bring down a large drug cartel in Columbia. A string of scattered, sloppy scenes ensue where we’re expected to understand the intentions of characters we’ve never met or, by their actions, would care to meet.
There are several contributing errors to the script, which was written by Mann. I felt detached from a plot, as if the story was not meshing with the actual movie. When the characters spoke, it felt contrived, like they were speaking simply because the script obligated them to. And aside from that, Mann takes us to so many different locations with so many different people speaking in so many different accents, that it is a chore just adjusting to the pronunciation.
Nowhere is that more of a problem than with the film’s third billed actor: Gong Li. Apparently, Ms. Li is all the rage in China, but her English is so choppy and one-noted that her dialog is nearly always incoherent. To add to this, Mann supplies her character, Isabella, with stylish dialog that would sound exciting and fresh coming from another actress, when in reality it is a director choking on his own eloquence.
All this is not to say that the plot cheats or is so complex that it loses us. Not at all. Once we sift through all the ethnicities, we are glimpsed with a magnificent, taut story worthy of being called a “Michael Mann film.” It is simply that the story and the characters never form a bond; they merely settle for each other.
This is also true with the relationship between Isabella and Sonny. In order for the third act to work at all, we need to believe that they have fallen in love with each other. The man at the top of this drug ring is shown a surveillance tape of Sonny and Isabella dancing sensuously together at a night club. He has the notion that he “owns” her, and seeing another man with her is unacceptable. Thus, his jealously motivates a final act of violence, which becomes – aha! – the final act of the film.
This is due to (as I said) Sonny and Isabella’s love for each other, which is demonstrated through – I counted – three sex scenes (or semi-sex scenes), which are supposed to convince us of their love. Call me naďve, but for all I know, they could’ve thought the other one was hot. Technically, that is all that is required for physical attraction.
Despite a severed plot, Mann does what he never fails to do right: give us great action. That last act includes a shootout that Entertainment Weekly claimed “rivaled the finale of ‘Heat’ in scope and ambition.” Mann always delivers larger-than-life sequences, and that is one of the few strengths of the film. And the digital aspect of it makes it even more interesting as well. Hopefully, this is Mann’s only “Vice.” ** ˝