Crooked cops get worse in muddy ‘Triple 9’

By LINDSEY BAHR

AP Film Writer

“Triple 9” has everything going for it, and that’s its biggest handicap.

This tale of gangsters and crooked cops in Atlanta has got a murderer’s row of acting talent – Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Winslet and Woody Harrelson among them – an alluringly dark premise and bombastic bursts of greatness. But, ultimately, director John Hillcoat (“The Proposition,” “The Road”) fails to meld the storytelling with the film’s ambitious scope, the way Michael Mann so proficiently did 21 years ago with his modern classic “Heat.”

“Triple 9” starts out auspiciously enough, with a pulsating and vividly executed bank robbery that crackles with tension and immediacy as the criminals execute the heist and begin their escape through the busy streets of the gritty city. It’s the kind of drawn-out sequence that can be enough to propel an entire film as you wait for another set piece to top it. There is one other masterfully choreographed raid about midway through, but by then you’re almost too caught up in the confusing who, what, where and why to indulge in the excitement.

Hillcoat, working from screenwriter Matt Cook’s Black List script, trusts the audience to weave together the narratives of its eight main characters by themselves without the help of exposition – a welcome challenge, but a frustrating one as well. There are just so many characters, subplots and motivations to keep track of that it feels more like an extended pilot in the vein of “The Wire” or even “True Detective” than a contained movie.

Essentially, there’s a cabal of mercenary cops (Anthony Mackie, Clifton Collins Jr.) and tattooed, ex-military baddies (Aaron Paul, Norman Reedus, playing grease ball brothers) who do dirty jobs for Russian-Israeli gangsters (led by Kate Winslet, packing a thick accent, blonde bouffant and vampy press-on nails).

The talented and endlessly watchable cast helps the confusing story chug along, even after you’ve given up hope of really understanding what exactly is going on or caring about any of the characters in the film.

It’s not necessarily the fault of the actors. In fact, for the most part, you just crave more scenes with Ejiofor, Mackie, Harrelson and Collins.

Casey Affleck, in particular, proves once again that not only is he the more talented Affleck brother, but he also could be one of the greats of his generation if he could just find films and roles worthy of his gift.

“Triple 9” imagines itself a sprawling, nihilistic epic, and it floats along for a while on the shoulders of its prestige filmmaking and cast, but, ultimately, the storytelling just isn’t up to the task.