The Infiltrator

The Infiltrator is an action movie with no overly long car chases, gratuitous explosions, or stupid gunfights where hundreds of bullets kill nobody. Instead, it blends action, dialogue, and thinking. It upholds God-approved morals in an R-rated world—although this particular R-rated film accurately reflects that world’s violence, profanity, and sexual content.

The story is a sort-of-true retelling of how U.S. Customs agent Robert Mazur, played by a growling Bryan Cranston, took down money launderers in the era of “Just Say No.” Because he is a real man, he is a good man in ways Hollywood would not normally portray. He loves his wife, so passes on at least two chances to cheat. It is shocking how refreshing morality is.

The acting is uneven and so is the script: At times, you can guess what people are going to say. Yet the story works despite lazy writing, because in real life Robert Mazur did an amazing job. He tracked down banksters instead of the street thugs that Customs usually got. Some of the people at the top of the business are portrayed with complexity: Roberto and Gloria Alcaino (Benjamin Bratt and Elena Anaya) are a charming and loving family running a cocaine empire for a murderous thug. They are the most likable people in the film, forcing us to acknowledge that gross evil can come from apparent winners.

One caution: The Infiltrator toys with the idea that the system is totally corrupt. Alcaino suggests, without refutation, that drug money props up the entire U.S. economy, and I heard people in the theater make noises of agreement. This is dangerous. The film points to massive corruption and a bank taken down by it, but the notion that an economy the size of the United States was (especially under Reagan!) kept afloat on drug money is absurd.

Skepticism about the system is good, but perhaps this is the wrong time to tempt folks with total cynicism.