The Infiltrator

Ever wonder what happened after Breaking Bad?

Turns out that Bryan Cranston became a FBI undercover agent against the drug mob!

Maybe it was a long-con by Walter White to protect his turf?

Either way, The Infiltrator hit theaters this week without much fanfare despite the irony of Cranston's role. By now we all know that the performance of Walter White was one of the best ever given by an actor -- even Sir Anthony Hopkins believes so! -- so it's pretty clear that when you go to a film with Cranston in it, he's usually the best part about said film.

This is true with The Infiltrator for sure as the film minus Cranston is a rather messy affair, but with him it holds more gravitas than it should and ends up being better than it should be. That's a bit of a shame when you wonder what a little extra TLC may have made this movie, but then again, that's probably why we're getting this in the middle of summer rather than Oscar season time.

This is the "based on a true story" tale of an FBI agent who went very, very deep undercover in an attempt to disrupt Pablo Escobar's drug business that was booming in the mid/late 80s. I wasn't alive back then, but it was certainly a big deal at the time and seemed to be when a lot of attention was focused on America's war on drugs. This particular story is pretty incredible, especially if certain scenes are true, and it made me think hard about how difficult and scary the life of a deep-undercover agent may be. Unfortunately, the film's biggest fault is that it just feels like a collection of scenes strung together...they lack really any transition editing and often scenes don't relate to the ones that came before them. It's not that you can't follow the story, you just feel like you're missing pieces along the way and it comes across as a disjointed effort. An episode of Breaking Bad, this is not. Furthermore, the film has a flair for being a tad overdramatic, especially in scenes that I didn't feel called for it. There are well-earned dramatic moments for sure, but in others it felt like the script was designed to make every line in the conversation feel like a memorable, smart line when really it comes across as either long-winded or unnecessary. I had to silently chuckle at a few of the lines thrown around, not because of Cranston's delivery, but because it felt like the film was so desperately trying to capture that Walter White persona or classic line (i.e. "You're god**m right.").

"This is my new Jesse Pinkman!"

"And you shall be my new Skylar..."

And that's where Cranston comes in, as willing and talented as ever to play this character full out. It's a strong performance and it leads the film with a commanding presence, as he's known to do. His range of emotion and ability to tap into it is impressive to watch and he's someone who can transmit his fear or his anger to his audience very well. The movie isn't so lost without him that he "saves" it, but he is definitely the single best aspect of the film. His character, Bob, is one who's close to retirement, even offered an early one, but instead decides to take this job. He's in control most of the time, but there are a handful of great scenes where he either loses it, or realizes that he is NOT the top dog. It's in these moments that the film truly sings and approaches the special feature that it could have been. I particularly enjoyed Benjamin Bratt's character as well (he plays someone fairly high up in Escobar's chain) and the interaction between Cranston and he is solid; they're two men who want to trust each other and who respect each other.

The ending, while orchestrated well and exciting, is where the film somewhat lost me. Mainly because of the message it seemed like it was trying to send home with the viewer. I won't give anything away, but it seemed an awful lot like it had sympathy for the "friends" Cranston had made while undercover and to me I could really only sit there and think, "Ummmm, no. They're drug runners/smugglers/crooks and they don't deserve my sympathy. They made their bed, now they should lie in it." Potentially the film was going for another angle, but it came across as almost sorrow for characters based on real people that don't deserve our sympathy or empathy.

"And you good sir! You will be my new Gus!"

The Infiltrator is a surely competent film with a handful of really great scenes, some corny dialogue, a flair for being a bit overdramatic, and a very impressive cast with a fantastic central performance. For me, it's not worth more than one viewing, but I enjoyed it all the same and given the bummer that this summer has kind of been thus far, you could certainly do a lot worse in theaters right now than watching this Walter White switch-a-roo.

CONS:

• Its presentation of the story feels disjointed and lacks a fluidity for most of the duration
• Some scenes are better than others and a handful of them feel pretty cheesy
• Those cheesy scenes mainly have the dialogue to thank as it tries too hard to create Heisenberg quotes out of thin air
• Whatever message the film was aiming for at the end came across as rather inappropriate to me which means that something was off

PROS:

• This is a riveting story given the fact that a significant portion of it was true. Does a good job of helping one to understand the perils/stress of being an undercover agent
• There are a handful of really great scenes here, often complimented nicely by the film's strong soundtrack or original score
• Cranston's performance is the single biggest reason for the film's success and it brings out a strong character that we begin to care about his well being
• Remaining cast is great too -- Benjamin Bratt being my other highlight
• Entertaining, historically interesting, and features a Cranston performance. It's certainly enjoyable for at least one trip around the block

Rath's Review Score: 7.5/10