Broken City is a homage to the neo-noir of the 1970s that falls short of the mark in its most crucial elements. The script – stodgy and formulaic, the leading man – more scrambled than hard-boiled and the intrigue that is far from intriguing.
Mark Wahlberg plays Billy Taggart, an ex-cop working as a private detective, having been forced to leave the NYPD after exercising some vigilante justice on a murder suspect. In the run up to the mayoral election, Taggart is hired by the incumbent Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe) to investigate his wife Cathleen (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who he believes is having an affair. Taggart discovers that Cathleen has been having secret meetings with the campaign manager of her husband’s rival; but is the relationship romantic or political? Soon Taggart finds himself embroiled in political corruption.
In its atmosphere, Broken City is aiming for the corrupt, seedy world of the neo-noir but neither director Allen Hughes (of directing team The Hughes Brothers) nor writer Brian Tucker truly has the courage of this conviction. The narrative seems reluctant to pay anything but lip-service to the required grit and darkness that would elevate the film from its current state as a below average thriller. On paper, the main character has a dark side to him – an ex-alcoholic with a murder on his shoulders but Wahlberg plays him as a salt of the earth type with a passing fondness for whiskey.It’s a performance that lacks the required depth and complexity. Crowe does a better job as the mahogany tanned, venal Mayor – but again, Hostetler is a run of the mill bad-guy and too easily outwitted.
His lack of cunning is a fault that reflects the film as a whole. The political intrigue is shoddily done; its twists can be seen coming from a mile off and its villains are plain stupid -at one point leaving a box of sensitive material out by a dumpster ready to be picked up by any passer-by.
Neither compelling nor intelligent, Broken City never raises its head above ordinary. But at least Russell Crowe doesn’t break into song.