Mark Reviews Movies: MOST WANTED (2020)

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 23, 2020

Anger seems like the most obvious and easiest response to the story told by Most Wanted. A young man, trying to financially survive and falling into a cycle of addiction, is set up by an opportunistic criminal and a far-too-eager federal policing agency. We can understand, if find no sympathy for, the criminal's actions. At least he has an excuse: What else did you expect from him?

As for the police, we can comprehend their motive—wanting to look tough and effective at the height of an international "War on Drugs." Understanding of and, obviously, sympathy for that motive, though, are non-existent. There is no excuse.

If the goal is stop the flow into and selling of drugs within and throughout a country, why would they essentially create an international drug smuggler? If the problem really is as terrible as governments around the world say it is, shouldn't there be at least a single real one with which to deal? If they realized their mistake, shouldn't the cops involved uphold the law and the concept of justice at the foundation of legislation over their personal and career aspirations?

Yes, you want to get angry about this story, based on a true one to some degree or another, but writer/director Daniel Roby takes a slightly different perspective on this matter. There's plenty of reason to feel frustrated and infuriated by what happened, but there's also plenty of reason to mourn just how many lives were changed and how much trust was betrayed over the course of this tale.

Roby's structuring of this story is fairly clever, too, in a way that we don't quite realize until things start to appear as if they might be going out of control. The gimmick, which doesn't seem like a gimmick, instantly makes us realize just how far gone matters have become.

It's a dual narrative. One section features Daniel Léger (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), a financially struggling guy who has come to Vancouver after finishing a temporary job. With only his last paycheck and parents who refuse to help him (They suspect he'll start using drugs again), things are going to become difficult sooner rather than later.

Needing a place to stay, he contacts an old friend, who arranges a couch for Daniel on a fishing boat owned by Picker (Jim Gaffigan). Picker offers him a job, which involves helping out on the boat when there are customers—with a little buying heroin from a local supplier on the side. Meanwhile, Frank Cooper (Stephen McHattie), a cop with the Canadian federal police, has been passed over for a promotion and wants to prove his worth. He connects with Picker, who turns out to be an obviously unreliable informant. The drug dealer promises the cop a huge arrest: Daniel, whom Picker falsely paints as a big-time smuggler with significant connections in Thailand.

While all of this unfolds, we also follow Victor Malarek (Josh Hartnett), a freelance journalist with a nose for corruption. He's looking into the drug-supply chain, namely its ties to Thailand.

There are some unnecessary story beats involving his neglected wife (played by Amanda Crew), who just gave birth to their first child (He misses the birth, because of an interview and a chase with some gangsters who didn't like the tone of an article about them), but at least they give us what we need to know about him: He'll stop at nothing for a big story that will uncover the dishonesty of powerful people. Roby, despite changing and adjusting details of and people within the true story for dramatic (and, likely, legal) reasons, has a similar approach (which might explain why there's so much of Viktor, whether necessary or extraneous, in this story).

We wait, of course, for Victor and Daniel's stories to merge, since the journalist is looking into a trade in which, in the movie's surface-level timeline, the young man is about to become involved. When the meeting arrives, though, we realize we've been slightly duped, although with good intentions for the point of this story and for a clever purpose within the narrative.

Immediately, the extent of the damage able to be caused by Picker, Frank, the other (and, in the case of some, unseen at this point) cops, and the entire system of a tough drug-enforcement policy becomes clear. At the same time, the bungling and deception of the players surrounding Daniel, which is almost amusing in how inept both sides are in pulling off their plans, is provided a level of sudden severity by means of dramatic irony.

We know what's going to happen. It's going to leave behind at least one dead body, a possible international scandal, a lot of lying, and one man whose fate hangs in the balance because of fear, desperation, and government officials who don't care if he lives or dies, as long as they get the praise. Again, we want to get angry (and Roby gives us plenty of reason to respond in that way), but with its dual framing, the film offers both the sad story of a man betrayed by systems he should trust and the hopeful tale that at least some people do care about righting such injustices. There's a fine moment, intercutting between two close-ups, as Daniel tells his own story, only to be talked over and around, and Victor tells Daniel's to an audience that actually listens.

We're listening to both, too, and also witnessing how one party is dismissed, while the other is believed. As hasty as the resolution to Most Wanted may be, the point is clear: Get angry, yes, but do what you can, too.

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