MIAMI VICE

US, 2006, 134 minutes, Colour.
Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li, Noemi Harris, Ciaran Hinds, Barry Shabaka Henley, Luis Tosar, John Ortiz, Eddie Marsan, John Hawkes, Isaach de Bakole.
Directed by Michael Mann.

A great disappointment.

This film does not look or sound like the television series which it is paying homage to. Rather, it is based on the original pilot for the series. Director Michael Mann made the series distinctive by its look, its colour styles, the mod fashions of the 1980s. Now with the opportunity to do something special with it, he has made a very literally dark film.

The possibilities are there. The partnership between a black undercover agent and a white should be a good buddies movie. However, Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx demonstrate practically no rapport whatsoever. There is no real friendship or bonding – the plot sometimes keeps them in their own individual world. There is no wit or clever repartee. The undercover drugs mission is always relevant but you have to keep alert to keep recognising who is who, who is bad, who is good, who is undercover pretending to be bad…

The characters give no concern for us to care for them or what is happening. The villains are far more vivid.

There is some gratuitous sex. There is some gratuitous violence. What might have been much more helpful would have been some gratuitous plot explanations. The main tension built up is that of trying to hear and understand the dialogue, see through the murky photography and put together what is going on.

The great Chinese actress Gong Li turns up as a kind of villain, who becomes love interest, who has to be saved. Ciaran Hinds looks sinister as the agents’ boss which makes you assume that he is going to be a double-crossing villain, which he isn’t. There is some suggestion of leaks to the criminals but who they are eludes our attention.

A lot of effort has gone into this which makes the disappointment greater.

1. The popularity of the television series? An adaptation for the 21st century? Locations, characters, issues? A 21st-century perspective?

2. The director, his series of films? Audience responses and critics, pro and con? How much of the spirit of the television series?

3. The title, Miami locations, ordinary, different, clubs, police and the FBI offices, wharves, drug deals, extension to Havana? The sea and the boats? The musical score?

4. Issues of drugs in the United States? Consequences? In Miami? European gangsters? Hispanic? The Chinese wife? The bosses and the gangs, the thugs, money environments?

5. Undercover officers, their skills, the pressures, the demands?

6. The film as a buddies’ movie? The two men, as friends, their work, collaboration, complementary? Black and white? Their personalities, collaboration, sharing the work and the dangers?

7. Sonny, Colin Farrell, type, work, initiatives, working with the authorities, self-assertive, undercover work? the encounter with Isabella, the effect, the relationship? Her husband and communicating with him? Communicating with the other thugs, the plans, the busts, the risks, the tactics? The effect of Trudy and the torture? Isabella to husband, the setup, the police, waiting, the sniper? Letting Isabella go? Going to the hospital for Trudy? The future?

8. Tubbs, Jamie Foxx, character, appearance, work, the collaboration with Sonny, the relationship with Trudy? The plans, the authorities, infiltration, undercover work, Trudy and the torture, the blast, the crisis, the final bust and shootout, going to the hospital, touching Trudy’s hand, her being alive?

9. Trudy, her life and work, relationship with Tubbs, the explosive necklace, blindfold, interrogation, the rescue, blowing up the hut? Surviving, hospital?

10. The members of the squad, the different roles, collaboration, seeing them in action, men and women?

11. Castillo, his authority, talking, planning, the interaction with Fujimoto? Responsibility?

12. Fujimoto, contact, his role, the pressures?

13. The gangsters, drug bosses, deals, sinister, confrontation? The gangster and his wife?

14. The world crime, power, money and drugs, ruthlessness?

15. The rules of the police, the FBI, the DEA?