Post by StevePulaski on Apr 19, 2016 13:45:22 GMT -5
Miami Vice (2006)
Directed by: Michael Mann
Directed by: Michael Mann
Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx.
Rating: ★★½
Out of all the films with the potential to become something resembling a touchstone for my generation's film critics, who would've placed their bets on Michael Mann's Miami Vice, a gloomy and weighty adaptation of a 1980s TV show presumably nobody under forty still watches when it airs in reruns? Upon my first viewing some months back, admittedly with myself in a lesser frame-of-my-mind, I found myself unable to focus or concentrate on the narrative, and when the credits rolled, I made the decision to cut my losses on time and revisit the film at a later date.
That time has come and upon a second viewing of Miami Vice, my focus on the plot hasn't improved too much, although my view on the characters and the film's themes certainly have. This is the kind of film I'd love to have playing in the background of my home just to have its vibes with me. This is a film that's tone, aesthetics, and looming, brooding presence overtakes any kind of narrative sustenance. Right off the bat, writer/director Mann makes the narrative the least of his concerns as his film both opens and concludes in the middle of a pursuit, as if you were walking into the film a bit after it began and left shortly before it concluded. We ostensibly drop in on both detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs (Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx) right in the middle of a case and slowly follow them until it is coming to a close.
Whether or not the film's structure and plot devices are loyal to the TV series of the same name I cannot say. Whether or not Farrell and Foxx are adequate actors in their roles of the show's two prime detectives and their characters' are reflected well enough, once again, I cannot say. Whether or not the film even wants to be loyal to the show it's based on in the first place I cannot even say. I can, however, say that this is a film of moments; moments that expose the film's sort of cynical acceptance of imminent death, showcase two men affirming their brotherly, homoerotic bond with one another, and an all-encompassing look at an underworld by way of two men who have perpetrated it so often that they have pretty much come to live it themselves.
All of this is examined and profiled in a non-linear fashion, one where Mann looks to put the pieces together as he goes on and have them sporadically revealed to the audience rather than exposed by way of narration, lengthy monologues, or any combination that might lead to an information dump. I'll be the first to admit that I'm unsure all of the interworkings of the plot and would struggle to put together a cohesive plot for Miami Vice if asked. While I see that as a shortcoming of the film, alternative qualities look to almost entirely obscure that fact once the credits roll, and yet there's a good chance you won't be dazzled or even quietly moved by the themes of the film or the aesthetics it boasts. Maybe a reason of why it's gone on to live in relative obscurity, only surfacing in the multitude of film-driven conversations in cyberspace, is because most of its viewers back in the summer of 2006 (enough to propel the film to over $160+ million worldwide) saw it and quickly moved on. If you don't watch this film with your eyes wide open, you might just move on too.
Most of the film is conducted in relatively hushed conversation and, as stated, the tone is consistently cynical and fixated on imminent death. "Time is luck," Crockett's girlfriend Isabella (Gong Li) states, as the two become entangled with one another despite her affiliation with the drug kingpin (Luis Tosar) the two are looking to bust. It's as if she's saying that time is a luxury that can't afford to be bought nor wasted, especially when working in such a cruel field in a compromising position. When doing so, covers have the potential to be blown, identities and motives can be revealed, blood has the potential of being shed, greed and manipulation can come into play, and much more. Time and loyalty are both luck in this circumstance and both Crockett and Isabella have chosen to gamble a bit on both.
But the constant here is Crockett and Tubbs' friendship with one another, and it's a friendship that channels some questionably sexual bounds in terms of evoking homoeroticism at times. Mann makes the point that both these men are heterosexual in the long, lingering sex scenes they separately have with other women at different points in the film, but profiles their affection for one another quite frequently, as well Consider the scene where Tubbs is addressing Crockett's investment with Isabella and how that will affect their operation. Crockett gets defensive at one point during the fairly brief and innocuous conversation by asking Tubbs, "What, do you think I'm in so deep that I forgot?" Tubbs stops dead in his tracks to lock eyes with Crockett and say "I will never doubt you."
Sprinklings of homoerotic tendencies pop up everywhere, including the kind of "bro bonding" and joking we've become so used to in society. Consider when the term "vertically integrated" is said by one of the characters and Tubbs snidely infers it to meaning a bunch of men walking around with erections. Couple that with the fact that both Crockett and Tubbs are in the company of one another for almost every scene - even when the two men are showering, Mann and editors William Goldenberg and Paul Rubell position the camera so it's as if the two men are showering whilst facing one another, in a sort of self-reflective realm that toys with the conception of space (pictured above)- so this kind of relationship never has time to go off in a separate direction.
The only thing missing from Miami Vice is narrative cohesion; its disregard for its police procedural plot makes it seem aimless when, in fact, it's a calculated film of moments, manners, and mannish tendencies, all encapsulated with Dion Beebe's morose and stormy cinematography. Few would've predicted that handheld cameras with a great deal of film grain would've been ideal to capture the sun-soaked environment of Miami, but Mann and Beebe work in conjunction to make the perpetually strange but entrancing environment more like a lucid wet-dream of fantasy and impending disaster. I'll be revisiting one of film's most cryptic, mesmerizing, but flawed masterpieces many more times in the future, I can already tell.
Starring: Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li, and Luis Tosar. Directed by: Michael Mann.