THE INSTIGATORS - Mark Reviews Movies

The Instigators, Apple Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 2, 2024

The Instigators is about a pair of perennial screw-ups who are at the end of their respective ropes, get involved in a daring heist, and, well, screw up their way through it when the robbery goes, as one would expect, wrong. The story here is more about the unlucky situations the characters find themselves in and their surprisingly lucky bumbling than the characters themselves, but it's clear the filmmakers believe the opposite.

There's a strange disconnect, then, in director Doug Liman's movie, which has a laid-back attitude about itself but is also in a hurry to get through its plot. It wants to be two things—a character-based comedy about a mismatched couple, as well as some eccentric side players, and a speedy thriller that keeps the complications coming—but ends up succeeding as neither of them.

A significant part of the issue is that these characters seem to be going through the motions in both of those modes. The screenplay by Chuck MacLean and co-star Casey Affleck introduces us to the seemingly unlikely robbers at the start. One is Rory (Matt Damon), a retired Marine whose life after the military has collapsed. He is divorced, isn't on good terms with his ex, and hasn't seen his son in some time. Plus, he owes a good amount of money that he doesn't have and doesn't see a way of obtaining. During a therapy session with his psychiatrist Dr. Donna Rivera (Hong Chau), Rory explains all of that quickly, before suggesting that he's seriously contemplating suicide.

The other guy is Cobby (Affleck), whom we first meet trying to fake a breathalyzer with the help of a neighborhood kid in order to unlock his motorcycle. He's on his way to a local Boston bar in the morning, where the owner (played by André De Shields) worries about the guy messing up his life more than he already has (but not enough to eighty-six him, apparently).

Obviously, Cobby will get into trouble, and so will Rory. That comes when Mr. Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg), a local crime boss who runs his operation from the back offices of a bakery, requires some new crooks for a daring heist he has planned. It involves stealing under-the-table money given to the corrupt mayor (played by Ron Perlman) on the event of what seems to be his forthcoming re-election. The thieves will sneak into the shindig via the kitchen and nab all the illicit money from the safe—getting out before anyone of any importance knows they've been there.

Cobby agrees to the job because he gets a call from his associate Scalvo (Jack Harlow), and Rory somehow gets word of the heist (Was there an online ad?) and takes it, because he sees it as a way to pay off all his debts and either start fresh with his son or clean the slate before he dies. That we're unclear of both how Rory becomes involved and what his actual plan is after getting the money shows how little these characters actually matter in the story's bigger scheme.

Mostly, they're here for plenty of bickering as the heist fails, leaving a couple of dead bodies—including the city's chief of police—in its wake, and the incompatible pair that is Rory and Cobby has to evade a bunch of angry cops. The running joke is that the straitlaced Rory, who keeps taking notes about plan even after being scolded over it, isn't the criminal type, while Cobby certainly is. The two argue incessantly, except for a couple of scenes in which they explain (or, in the case of Rory, re-explain) their tragic back stories. Neither Damon nor Affleck's heart seems to be into the mismatched dynamic, though, although one can't blame either of them too much with the movie's relaxed tone conflicting with the philosophy of keeping the plot moving no matter what.

Then again, Affleck certainly has some responsibility here as a screenwriter, particularly for writing characters of some interest who just end up serving the plot in one way or another. There's the main pair, of course, but there's also a group of strong actors playing initially intriguing roles that go nowhere.

That includes Stuhlbarg as the increasingly cornered mob boss, Alfred Molina as his clean-up guy (who does nothing), Paul Walter Hauser as a goon sent to eliminate the troublesome duo, Perlman as the mayor, Toby Jones as his sniveling accountant, and Ving Rhames as a special-operations cop on the hunt for Rory and Cobby, as well as a MacGuffin. As Rory's therapist, Chau has the most to do of the supporting cast, although every step of her character's involvement—making her more and more of an accomplice—seems less likely than the last. If her participation in a citywide car chase (in which one could convincingly argue that her, Rory, or Cobby is the third wheel of the attempted comedy) seems ridiculous, just wait until the climactic standoff in the mayor's office.

Obviously, some of the silliness is built into The Instigators, which keeps piling on the problems for our protagonists. In theory, the basic setup has some promise, but the execution is unfocused and, as an unfortunate result, not particularly funny.

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