Film Review: The Infiltrator

"Promise Me This Is The Last One..."

Who would have thought that Hal from Malcolm in the Middle would have turned out to be one of the biggest, baddest and reputable actors come 2016? Ever since making major waves in Breaking Bad with his sublime portrayal of Walter White, Bryan Cranston seems to be in the joyous position of being able to pick and choose what he wants to do, when and where, with his latest project, Brad Furman's The Infiltrator, only extending Cranston's pedigree as one of the greatest actors of this generation alongside a strong cast including Diane Kruger (Inglorious Bastards), John Leguizamo (John Wick) and Amy Ryan (Birdman) in a highly dramatised portrayal of Robert Mazur, a US Customs agent who goes undercover as a corrupt money-laundering businessman in order to bring down Pablo Escobar's infamous drug operation. Although The Infiltrator falters from hardly bringing anything original to the tale of undercover operations, the illegal drug trade and gritty crime dramas in general, it does benefit from a simply outstanding performance from Bryan Cranston in the lead role. Boy, does that man love being two-faced. 

Although plot contrivances and exposition galore prevent The Infiltrator from being as silky smooth as other films of a similar ilk, Bryan Furman's drama focuses primarily on the absurdity of an undercover operation, squeezing out tension left, right and centre in order to empathise with the central character and the torment of a double life in which one wrong step could potentially result in not only losing his own life but his entire family too. Adding to the deception is the inclusion of Diane Kruger as Cranston's makeshift fiancee who is only added to the disguise after a brief slip of the tongue, whose rookie nature only adds to the worries of our titular infiltrating agent. Although the ending is ever-so-slightly rushed and feels rather flashy in a mostly stripped down hard-edged crime drama, The Infiltrator is a solid two hour drama, one which if failed to feature the larger-than-life presence of Cranston in its' lead role may have failed completely. Thankfully for Brad Furman, Cranston is the film's selling point and rightly so; he's electric. 

Overall Score: 7/10