The Enforcer - 2022 Thriller- Movie Review

The Enforcer is a noir thriller movie directed by Richard Hughes, starring Antonio Banderas and Kate Bosworth,

A movie that is blatant in its good intentions, and has too many highs as well as too serious lows, but, in all fairness, it does hit the mark with scarce frequency, here and there.

Premise

Set in Miami, the story follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.

Trailer of The Enforcer (2022)

Movie Review

Have you ever seen a movie where someone enters a club, the camera elevates and then zooms in on a young woman (with skimpy clothing, if any) dancing to the techno beats, and all is illuminated with flashing colorful lights? Cinematographers probably have a technical term for such scene, but here we will refer to it as the collective-pop-cinematic unconscious-take, just to make it easier for us all. And in order to simplify even more: it is those movies that recur to the “same old” scenes to fill in gaps when an obvious lack of ideas strikes.

There are too, movies that we can see from the very start an ambiance, a good definition of the characters, a carefully drafted screenplay, and that, for some reason, everything falls into place, and simply works.

Perhaps, being in between those two options, carried out to perfection would be a perfect something: it is either a “dead boring” flick, or it is a “brilliant” movie. The Enforcer has a bit of both options: with some truly brilliant approaches and great moments, and then…. the incoherent fill in the gap scene with the go-go dancer, just to mention one of those fillers throughout the film. Let us just put it this way, that the editing, or the screenplay, choice is an efficient way of ruining a good idea behind the movie. Granted though, as we mentioned before, that there also are notable scenes in this feature, which are isolated incidents of brilliance.

Antonio Banderas is a good casting choice for a father-hitman-killer-vigilante type, yes another home brewed term, and his character is interesting in as far as it is a man who seeks redemption of sorts well aware of the fact that it is his last chance to do so.

It is a movie that parts from a good idea hence premise, with characters that are constructed on clichés, and that in between these two extremes we experience well crafted atmospherics that at times are truly brilliant, the same applies to some of the takes, which caught our attention (they are very careful in the treatment of the photography in the scenes with Kate Bosworth).

Our Opinion

It is an unbalanced movie, that at times is really good, while at others it is a complete disaster. We are giving it 6/10 for the intention behind this production, rather than for the final product it delivers.