"I am not a soldier. This is not what I do."
This understated, tense and absorbing thriller drew scattered applause at the end from the cinema audience, not something that happens often with today's multiplex crowd. Director Denis Villeneuve yet again builds on his previous winners with this hard tale of an FBI agent (Emily Blunt) drawn into the U.S. Government's murky attempts to deal with Mexican drug-running. As the audience discovers the characters' true 'objectives' through Blunt's eyes, she gives an extremely sympathetic and invested performance, matched by recent-best performances from Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro, the latter in particular keeping secrets close and darting across the moral scale with intense aplomb. Also immensely impressive is Roger Deakins's wonderful cinematography, with bleached desertscapes, impressive use of scale and a wonderful eye for detail, and a heart-pounding soundscape. It is rare that an unsensationalised action-thriller can be such a physically and emotionally direct film as well as being morally and intellectually thought-provoking, and the slow-burn approach makes for an immensely satisfying viewing experience.
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