Triple Frontier - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

IT MAY have experienced a difficult journey to the screen but Triple Frontier is a suitably impressive thriller that benefits from the wealth of talent in front of and behind the camera.

The cast, led by Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck, also includes Pedro Pascal and Charlie Hunnam, while JC Chandor (of A Most Violent Year and Margin Call fame) directs from a script he co-wrote with Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty and Detroit). Added to that, Kathryn Bigelow (who was originally lined up to direct) serves as a producer, having previously collaborated with Boal on Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker.

The film itself finally made it to screen in 2019 having been in various stages of development since 2010, with stars including Tom Hanks, Tom Hardy, Johnny Depp and Channing Tatum all previously attached. But given such a tumultuous production, it remains a first-rate thriller.

Isaac plays Pope, a special forces operative, who has spent the past three years trying to catch a notorious drug lord close to the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil - the triple frontier of the title.

When an informant reveals his location, as well as the fact that his house is being used as a safe for all of his money, Pope opts to enlist the help of former comrades in arms to both kill the drug lord and keep the money for themselves (rather than report it to his bosses).

Heading up this team is Affleck’s down on his luck former commander, as well as Pascal’s pilot and two brothers, Hunnam and Garrett Hedlund.

But while the robbery and assassination prove relatively straight forward, their escape is less so - testing loyalties within the group.

Triple Frontier grips as much as it does by virtue of its assured direction, which is suitably muscular without being overly hung-ho, the quality of its cast (all of whom excel and exhibit a believable camaraderie) and the intelligence of its writing.

As befitting a script by Boal, there’s nuance and complexity. The soldiers here may have a traditional brothers-in-arms bond, but they’re far from one dimensional patriots. Rather, they are men who have seen too much, having been asked to do too much that is ethically dubious. Some have PTSD, others now feel burnt out and discarded, the best years of their lives forsaken.

Admittedly, the film could have been even better had it spent more time exploring this - especially the moral and ethical questions it poses. But Chandor seems content to allow his cast to convey this without drawing on too much exposition, preferring instead to examine the military dynamics of the heist and the will they or won’t they get away with it thrill of the subsequent escape.

And to be fair, this does make for a tense, emotionally gripping scenario that does contain some surprises.

Chandor also refuses to wrap things up neatly, confident to leave some questions unanswered and arriving at a conclusion that is suitably measured in the context of the morality on display.

As such, Triple Frontier is able to both entertain while it lasts, as well as linger in the memory for a little while afterwards.