2 ½ stars (out of four)
Lado Arroyo, played with vicious intensity by Benicio del
Toro, prowls around like a rabid animal in Savages, Oliver Stone’s searing new thriller about the
intersections between a Mexican drug cartel and the marijuana business in
Southern California.
An enforcer for an infamous crime lord (Salma Hayek), Lado
is an electrical rod, giving the film a jolt of energy whenever it starts
to falter. Mr. del Toro’s performance might even embody the movie’s wild,
multifaceted personality in miniature. Lado is brutally violent and
misogynistic, and Benicio del Toro plays him with a cavalier demeanor that
could be cold and calculating. Or it could be the menacing quiet of an absolute
psychopath. When he interrogates people and gives them his calm, leering stare,
it is hard to tell whether he has a plan or is making it up as he goes along.
The same may be said of director Oliver Stone, who also
shares writing credit here with Shane Salerno and Don Winslow (who wrote the
novel from which this film has been adapted). There are moments when Savages comes just shy of the grandeur of Martin Scorsese’s
mob movies. But even the most frenetically stylized work from Scorsese bears an
unmistakable mark of the director’s command over his material. Oliver Stone’s
style is looser, relying on handheld cameras and quick editing. It can create
an intoxicating effect but has its limitations too. Certain sequences in Savages have a woozy power but just as often the film feels
as though it could spiral out of control.
Through the narration of a Laguna surfer girl named Ophelia
(Blake Lively), we are introduced to Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon
(Taylor Kitsch), who run a highly profitable business growing and selling the
best weed in the world. Ben is the brains of the operation, though he would
probably prefer to be called the spirit and soul of it. He is a longhaired and
peace-loving young man, a Buddhist who has just returned from a humanitarian
trip in Indonesia.
Chon, on the other hand, is the muscle of the business. An
ex-Navy SEAL, he does the dirty work for his best pal – the usual busting
down doors and collecting owed money from clients – and he carries with him
a fair amount of mental baggage from the war.
Ophelia (“O,” as she goes by) has given her heart to both
men, and all three seem pretty happy about that arrangement. She spends some
nights with Ben, others with Chon and, on at least one stoned evening, both at
once.
But their blissful paradise – an impressive villa overlooking
the beach – can only last so long. A representative from the aforementioned
Mexican drug cartel (Demián Bichir) visits them (having first sent a
rather intimidating video of decapitated heads). He explains that his boss
would like to go into business with them. Ben and Chon will teach the cartel’s
workers the secrets of the trade and over the course of several years, then they
will hand over the business entirely for a considerable payout. The deal is
really more of a command though; Ben and Chon have little choice in the matter.
Things get complicated, however, as situations like this
often do. There are kidnappings and ransoms, heated negotiations, infighting
among the cartel, and a DEA agent (John Travolta) who has his hands in just
about every piece of the pie imaginable. Whipping it all together in a frenzy
that occasionally flirts with incoherence, Oliver Stone delivers an
exhilarating genre picture that only touches peripherally on political issues
that are often at the forefront of his movies.
The film also has a wicked sense of humor and a willingness
to poke fun at itself. When a character says the movie’s title once, it’s
tacky. When three different characters say the title over the course of the
movie, the filmmakers are clearly having fun.
But Savages never
quite finds its footing; it’s too busy running headlong into its next crazy
idea. Portions of the movie are so frantic and energized that when the movie
does slow down, we start to lose interest.
Still, Savages has
plenty of good scenes and a handful of great ones that redeem its shortcomings.
Not the least of these come from a superb cast. Benicio del Toro is a
compulsively watchable force, as is Salma Hayek as Elena Sánchez, the woman
pulling all the strings. In one of the best scenes, she unleashes a bilingual
tirade on a few of her henchmen, swearing only in subtitled Spanish. Ms. Hayek
balances the over-the-top with the understated, revealing occasional glimmers
of tenderness in the fiery cartel boss.
John Travolta reminds audiences what a commanding presence
he has, going toe to toe with Benicio del Toro in one crackling scene, another
highlight of the film. With so much scene-stealing talent it would be easy to
miss strong work from the three young leads. The best of them may be Taylor Kitsch,
who pretty much only has one gear, angry, but he makes it compelling.
The ending, unfortunately, is a letdown. At first it seems
lazy, then it tries to do too much and ultimately peters out with a trite
voiceover from Blake Lively. (When a movie has a character reciting a Webster’s
definition of the title, it’s a sign the filmmakers don’t know how to end it.)
But this only briefly dampens the impact of the movie’s audacious heights,
which burn on in spite of its flaws.
- Steve Avigliano, 7/16/12
