The Spanish word for assassin is Sicario and much like an assassin, the film that carries that name — starring Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro — has come out of nowhere and shot a bullet of emotional power straight through our heart.
Blunt stars as Kate Macer, an idealistic FBI agent who is tired of getting her and her team’s asses handed to them by the Mexican drug cartels week after week. When she is presented with an opportunity to join an interdepartmental team with Brolin’s agent, Matt, and Del Toro’s Mexican advisor, Alejandro, she leaps at the chance to take the drug war to the heart of those who are causing such pain, death and bloodshed on both sides of the border.
Only, things are not quite what they seem. She and her partner, Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya), are always the last to know about the team’s plans. But, the more Macer prods and digs, the less she likes what she is learning about the goals of this highly militarized team. For starters, on their first mission, she was told they were flying to El Paso. They really went into Mexico to take custody of a high ranking cartel member. That leads to an impeccably shot, suspenseful scene involving trying to cross the crowded border with this cartel member when it seems that every car waiting in line to come into America is armed to the “T” and trying to stop them.
There are plenty of suspenseful moments throughout Sicario, enough to rival a traditional action film. Much of it is cerebral thrills, which plays to the strength of director Denis Villeneuve, who built incredible breathtaking moments from the most basic of forms in his last film, Prisoners. Here, Villeneuve has us emotionally invested in Macer, and feeling her need to do something to help the people affected by the proliferation of drugs that is making life so difficult for so many.
The audience gets to share the real sense of frustration that so many who fight this drug war in real life feel with the delivery of one line by Del Toro’s character. He tells Blunt that this battle is forever an uphill climb because 20 percent of the American population are these cartel’s biggest consumers. Sicario appears to be a lesson in running a marathon while swimming in quicksand.
That is just one of the many powerful messages through Villeneuve’s film. It is not preachy, don’t get us wrong. Sicario is merely a reality check into how the U.S. government is spending lives, money and resources in what appears to be a losing effort. The film also paints a picture of how our leaders have oftentimes made deals with the devil in order to try to fight a perceived common enemy (ironically mirroring a message in another movie out now, Black Mass).
The acting ensemble is tremendous. Blunt deserves an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of idealism meets reality and Del Toro could easily be on his way to a second Oscar win for playing a character caught up in the drug war. Then, there’s Brolin. Yet again the man who appears to be everywhere lately (he’s also sublime in Everest, which is also out now) turns in a performance that shows that this son of a Hollywood titan is just getting started blazing his own legendary thespian path.