A young female FBI agent joins a secret CIA operation to take down a Mexican cartel boss, a job that ends up pushing her ethical and moral values to the limit.
It is through FBI agent Kate Macer’s (Emily Blunt) eyes that we witness just how twisted this world can be in Denis Villeneuve’s crime-thriller “Sicario”. After being shaken up by a gruesome discovery connected to the Mexican cartel, Macer is suddenly recruited as an FBI liaison to a secret CIA force led by the too-casual Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the odd Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro). Their immediate target is an Arizona-based cartel member who will hopefully lead them to the ultimate target: Fausto Alarcon (Julio Cesar Cedillo), the drug lord living on the outskirts of Mexico’s most dangerous city. This plot is never spoonfed; we are only occasionally clued into the mere bones of the CIA’s plan, but just like Kate and her partner Reggie (Daniel Kaluuya), we are mostly left in the dark until we are stunned at what is finally revealed.
That’s how “Sicario” keeps viewers in — the despair of not knowing what is actually going on fuels us to watch more attentively. Granted, it can be a little annoying to have to wonder what’s going on sometimes, but it does make the whole film a bit more engaging. It’s one of Villeneuve’s trademarks to keep his audience guessing and guessing until he pulls back the curtain and reveals what no one was expecting, but was actually right in front of our faces the entire time (his formula is perfected in “Arrival” and “Blade Runner: 2049”). Here, the only one we can understand is Kate because she too is confused; in the end, when reality strikes, we are just as shaken up as she is.
When reality does hit, it hits hard. Kate and Reggie, both average FBI idealists, are taken aback after witnessing some of the purest forms of evil in the world. What is revealed to them is nothing less than raw humanity — sure to confound any idealist. From touring the vile city of Juarez, Mexico to realizing just how “good” the good guys really are, Kate finishes the film completely disillusioned.
Playing all this out is a cast of marvelous talent. The befuddled Kaluuya and Blunt are a striking contrast to the haughtily smug Brolin and Del Toro. The former duo is always paranoid and hesitant while the latter go about their (violent) business with blasé. Blunt is rightfully tense all the time while Brolin keeps cracking jokes and grinning — clearly he knows something no one else does. But, the winner here is Del Toro; he embodies all of the mystery and uncertainty surrounding the plot. His brooding silence says he’s the only one that probably knows everything, but the least likely to say anything. Del Toro always presents a shell-shocked countenance and grumbled speech, and he causes all of us to get a little more anxious whenever he is present.
The bleak portrait of reality that “Sicario” paints is accented even more by the way it looks. Master Cinematographer Roger Deakins (“Skyfall”, “The Shawshank Redemption”) drapes most of his shots with a tinge of dusty brown, giving us the feeling we are in a dry wasteland with nothing to refresh us. Barren and raw, the shots look exactly the way the world and its inhabitants are portrayed in the story. Style reflects story.
Another thing that stands out here is the few, but mighty action scenes. Most noteworthy is the highly-suspenseful “border battle” scene in which the CIA motorcade spots certain passengers of other cars preparing an ambush; there is a long build-up followed by only one minute — one stunning minute — of violence. As in this scene, Villeneuve makes all of “Sicario” feel like a cover slowly being pulled back to reveal something ugly beneath; we know it’s gonna be a grotesque find, but we can’t wait to see it.
