Spenser Confidential (2020)

★

When two Boston police officers are murdered, ex-cop Spenser teams up with his no-nonsense roommate, Hawk, to take down the culprits.

Classification: 15

After its bleak prologue, Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg's latest collaboration opens with iconic solos from "Foreplay/Longtime" by the band Boston, you know just in case you didn't quite clock the fact that this film is set in the great capital of Massachusetts. Because if that didn't tip you off, the heavy accents, beautiful vistas of Southie and of course a fistfight in a cop bar set to the glorious tune of Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline surely will. It almost seems like restraint that the third act showdown didn't take place on the fields of Fenway Park, opting for an abandoned dog track instead, so still somewhat on brand. Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with Boston, I love the city, one of my favourites in the world, Go Sox! but it's that obnoxious pigeonholing of characters and settings that in part makes Spenser Confidential so underwhelming and generic. The dream team of the two Bergs which has delivered tense, thrilling cinematic adventures soaked in patriotic hyperrealism such as Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, and Patriots Day are nowhere to be found. With their Netflix outing a painfully boring tepid action crime mystery that doesn't deliver on any front.

Based on the long-running character of Spenser, a detective character created by Robert B. Parker, with later stories written by Ace Atkins which has seen several made for television adaptations. With screenwriters, Sean O'Keefe and Brian Helgeland seeming to be following that tradition as nothing about Spenser Confidential's story feels cinematic rather an overly expensive TV pilot. Each story beat feeling that it's been cribbed from every procedural programme as recently released ex-cop Spenser (Wahlberg) finds himself investigating the murder of the dirty cop who put him in jail and murder/framing of another cop who Spenser knew. Initially planning to live a new life on the road as a truck driver, Spenser is drawn back into his old ways though with a new set of rules. As he teams up with Alan Arkin's Henry Cimoli, whom Spenser is staying with and more importantly Winston Duke's mixed martial arts fighter Hawk. Now the motivations for these characters to get involved in Spenser's investigation of a criminal conspiracy are vague at best, beyond "do it for the movie to happen", as Hawk a no-nonsense fighter who is just proof that Duke needs to play the antagonist in Creed 3 is just aimless in the film. Fantasy castings aside, Hawk is just slotted into tough-guy sidekick cliché with no personal exploration of his character or motivation for why he helps Spenser in his mission. The odd couple banter between the two leads never taking off as the foundation for their partnership is paper-thin. Spenser's motivations are clear, perhaps too clear as Berg utilises a hilariously pathetic expository device which shows Wahlberg writing specific questions on a notepad during his truck driving lessons. Being sure to add question marks, and underlining key phrases such as "Why" and "Kill", it's bottom of the barrel crime cliché after the other as the mystery behind these deaths isn't surprising or intriguing in the slightest.

As the runtime goes on there is barely anything worth paying attention to, the story is painfully generic with the reveals both tired and anticlimatic (more dirty cops! by God!) and Berg's epic flair is completely absent. Spenser Confidential is sleepwalking through itself as its attempts to be a slick action crime caper just comes off as embarrassingly hilarious. The sequence of Wahlberg trying to chase down a car through a slew of neighbourhood backyards only to be viciously mauled by a dog had me in tears. It seems Berg intends for it to be comedic as well but there are so many moments that seem to want to have Wahlberg's underdog come across like a genuine action hero but instead have him looking like a pillock, you just don't what to think by the end. Though again, you've stopped caring as whatever rich history Robert B. Parker's character may have had in his forty years of novelised adventures, all of that is seemingly stripped away for another typecast Wahlberg performance. There is little character to Spenser Confidential, Wahlberg just doing another wise guy from Boston who for some reason is completely techno-illiterate despite spending only 5 years in prison, believing videotapes are still a thing and doesn't know how to use a computer (hence why all of his thoughts have to be written on a notepad). While the accent is heavy and personality so hackneyed, I enjoyed Iliza Shlesinger's performance as Spenser's ex-lover. She was a classic angry, Bostonian woman who didn't take any shit, again really enunciated on the accent and had fine chemistry with Wahlberg that I perhaps would have been more interested if she was the crime-fighting partner rather than Duke.

But alas she was not, with the majority of Spenser Confidential drifting between underwhelming action (except for that dog scene), crime mystery and comedy that has no definitive vision. Beating up bad guys, getting standard retribution for injustice, then moving on to the next case as he bickers with Hawk, Wahlberg's Spenser is just another average P.I who seems more suited for a timely reboot on CBS. I mean the film ends with sequel bait but honestly, I was shocked that Netflix's "Next Episode" tab didn't pop up in the lower right corner as Wahlberg decides to take on the next conspiracy of Massachusetts. The characters are all tired archetypes, the relationships equally underdeveloped and cliché and nothing of note beyond predictable sentiment are achieved by the screenplay. Even with its attempts of buddy comedy between Wahlberg and Duke, with Arkin's cantankerous attitude to the side and the occasional overblown scene with Shlesinger, there is little genuine heart or charisma to Berg's direction though I imagine there was little to begin with.

Director: #PeterBerg

Screenwriter: #SeanOKeefe and #BrianHelgeland

Cast: #MarkWahlberg, #WinstonDuke, #AlanArkin, #IlizaShlesinger, #BokeemWoodbine, #MarcMaron, #AustinPost