How many frontiers is too many? America can barely seem to manage one, two on a good day. Three? That seems like a recipe for disaster no matter how many walls we decide to build around it. Or at least that seems to be what director J.C. Chandor (“A Most Violent Year”) is trying to accomplish with his new Netflix original film, “Triple Frontier.” The less spectacular reality is that the name is likely only a reference to the area of South America that it takes place in, kind of like the tri-state area but for drug lords.
Sadly, audiences will find it to be a very confusing and underwhelming experience. It is a film that cannot commit to what it wants to be. This story about retired professional soldiers raiding a cocaine kingpin’s lair for his treasure quickly gets side-tracked with nonsense. It is a movie screaming for focus and discipline with what storyline it wants to tackle.
The first half of the film is a slow-paced, getting-the-band-back-together story about where all the characters’ lives have led them, before shifting to a cheesy crime thriller, then concluding with a Bear Grylls survival story and finally deciding it has earned enough goodwill to talk about the human condition.
All five of the soldiers essentially act like the same person. They drink beers and make quips when they are allowed to have fun, and that is about it. Outside of the two main characters played by Ben Affleck (“Justice League”) and Oscar Wilde (“Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”), the other three are unremarkable to the point where most audience members will not even be able to recall their names.
The movie threatens to have side characters as well, but they do not seem to last long. The opening scene sets up a ruthless police captain sweeping favelas, executing and intimidating everyone he finds. One might be fooled into thinking he would have played a larger part before he evaporates into the credits for the rest of the film along with the love interest.
Unfortunately, the action does not fair much better. It is commendable for realistic depiction of tactical violence, but it does not toe the line between lifelike and interesting very well. This is not like John Wick where a god among men disarms and dismantles a giant army of hitmen. The violence is more akin to watching people with guns hold angles before tapping the trigger on their magic wands to snuff out their fellow man.
One of the stronger points of the movie is that it plays toward larger themes of violence and misery that these countries exist in. It is a shame it has to share space with all the other ideas vying for attention. In the end, for all of the talent they had on board, the movie got lost in translation. All the best parts are contained in the scenery. Other than that, the writing is one dimensional, the action is slow and uneventful, and all of the plot twists are predictable and silly. “Triple Frontier” is a movie that fails on all fronts.
Image from Netflix via YouTube
