By George & Josh Bate
Nearly thirty years after they broke into the film industry together with Good Will Hunting, long-time friends and frequent collaborators Ben Affleck and Matt Damon team up on-screen once again with The Rip, a new crime thriller streaming on Netflix. Featuring an ensemble cast and intriguing premise and helmed by action movie veteran Joe Carnahan, Affleck and Damon’s latest endeavor promises to be another hit for the dynamic filmmaking duo. Unfortunately, a convoluted screenplay and jumbled storytelling fail to make the most of an intriguing premise and Affleck and Damon’s collective talent.
Based on a true story, The Rip follows a group of Miami cops led by Matt Damon’s Lieutenant Dane Dumars. Alongside Detectives JD Byrne (Ben Affleck), Mike Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lola Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno), Dumars follows a tip that there’s cartel money hidden in a house in Hialeah, Florida. When they arrive, the team discovers that the amount of money is far greater than they could ever possibly imagine. As laws in Miami-Dade County stipulate that the law enforcement count seized currency on the scene, the team are stuck in the house, making them targets for a variety of bad guys, some of whom may be closer than they know.
Filled with an abundance of law enforcement jargon and one-dimensional police officer characters with exaggerated personalities, The Rip begins rather messily. For its first 20 minutes, Carnahan’s film struggles to find its footing. The pacing is off, the editing is clunky, and the dialogue has the nuance of a subpar episode of Law and Order. Early on, Carnahan attempts to establish an emotional backbone to the story by using the death of the team’s former captain as the instigating incident for the film’s events, but, due to the disjointed nature of its beginning, The Rip botches its initial set-up and never quite recovers from its early missteps.
Once the core story kicks into gear, however, The Rip picks up considerably. Carnahan cultivates palpable tension by containing his film to a single setting and restraining himself from diving head first into guns-blazing action sequences. With such a large amount of money at hand and a first act that establishes corruption is rampant among different branches of law enforcement, the film quickly and consistently invites the audience to question the morals, loyalties, and motivations of everyone involved. No one is above suspicion, including our lead Matt Damon, which creates a fairly interesting mystery to ponder. It’s clear that things will eventually go awry in this ticking time bomb of a dilemma and that at least one person harbors hidden ill-intentions, but Carnahan effectively allows the tension to build and casts suspicion on everyone in equal measure.
Although The Rip excels in slowly escalating tension, the film is hindered by the same disjointed storytelling that marred its initial set-up. A screenplay with far too many moving parts that relies heavily on dialogue-driven exposition creates a convoluted narrative that only becomes clunkier and messier as the runtime progresses. In turn, the difficulties wrangling in various characters and exposition undercuts the aforementioned tension as one must frequently pull themselves out of the intensity of a scene to discern just exactly what’s going on and where everyone stands.
When The Rip eventually relieves the quiet tension and explodes into violence, it doesn’t disappoint. From Smokin’ Aces to The Grey to Copshop, Carnahan has crafted a reputation for strong handling of raw, gritty action set-pieces, and his latest film is no exception. It may not feature the quality or quantity of action audiences have come to expect from a Carnahan feature, although there is confident action filmmaking to admire nonetheless.
In a remarkable feat, The Rip somehow becomes most interesting and most frustrating in its final act. The film features (perhaps one too many) great twists and betrayals, almost all of which are unexpected and intriguing. Disappointingly though, the strength of these twists is let down, once again, by convoluted plotting. The film certainly makes sense – there are no glaring plot holes or unanswered questions – but it tries to be more clever than it is and, as a result, dampens on what could have been great curveballs in both conception and execution.
Throughout this mixed bag, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and company deliver serviceable, albeit unremarkable, performances. Damon and Affleck reportedly did extension research spending time with Miami police to understand their way of life, the pressures they are under, and how they handle high-stakes situations. This research clearly paid off as the two produce convincing and physically-attuned performances as seasoned police officers experiencing one hell of a night. Neither deliver the caliber of performances some of their better work has bolstered, although this is attributable to a screenplay that teeters on creating caricatures out of its characters. The rest of the ensemble deliver similarly unremarkable performances that collectively highlight scripting issues that fail to make the most of the talents of Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Kyle Chandler.
VERDICT: 5/10
Long-time friends and frequent collaborators Ben Affleck and Matt Damon team up once again nearly 30 years after Good Will Hunting for a crime thriller marred by convoluted storytelling and disjointed pacing. After an initial set-up filled with an abundance of law enforcement jargon and one-dimensional characters with exaggerated personalities, The Rip kicks into gear when its intriguing premise comes to life. A contained setting and screenplay that casts suspicion on every character’s loyalties and morals foster a tense viewing experience that invites the viewer to constantly question the motivations of everyone involved. This slow escalation in tension largely works well, although a clunky plot featuring too many moving and under-explored pieces undercuts the suspense. Although action movie veteran Joe Carnahan once again showcases his robust handling of action set-pieces, the film simultaneously becomes most interesting and most frustrating in a final act full of unexpected twists and turns that are hindered by a script that thinks it is more clever than it is. Damon and Affleck lead a strong ensemble through this mixed bag, creating believable police officers through physical and stoic performances. Overall, The Rip is a far cry from some of the filmmaking dynamic duo’s previous collaborations and, despite admirable attempts at cultivating tension and subverting expectations, disappoints with messy plotting.