Film Reviews

Miami Vice

• Rating:
• Director: Michael Mann
• Starring: Colin Farrell
• Details: US / 146mins (15A).

Michael Mann has a reputation of making slick and polished films: Collateral and Heat displayed a talent for credible dialogue, a unique no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase style and a love of the colour blue. Miami Vice is no different. With no opening credits, Mann throws us headlong into the underworld of his two protagonists - vice detectives Ricardo Tubbs (Foxx) and Sonny Crockett (Farrell) - who are sussing out a prostitution ring in a Miami nightclub. However, they are distracted when a call from a nervous informant leads them to a case involving drug smuggling and white supremacists. Going undercover as drug dealers, they go into business with South American drug lord, the aptly named Archangel de Jesus Montoya (Luis Tosar), and his crew. However, when Sonny falls for Jesus' right hand woman (Li Gong) it complicates the mission. The dialogue is in the usual Mann style, as if we have just entered a room and into a middle of a conversation. No concession is made to the audience as nothing is spelt out and we really have to pay attention to keep up with what's going on. The direction again is typical Mann - handheld cameras, neon-lit streets, a film that creates its own seamless momentum. Mann also has a habit of directing cold films and it's evident here again. Farrell and Foxx inhabit their characters sufficiently, but since they actually speak to each other only on a handful of occasions throughout the two and half hours minutes running time, there is no chemistry between them. In fact, the two seem quite soulless and their one facial expression eventually grates, despite Mann's extra curricular attempts to get us rooting for them by showing us their private lives as he did in Heat. Those expecting death-defying stunts, shoot-outs, flash cars and speedboats will feel a little gypped too. Although all are here, they are severely trimmed back - but this is a plus rather than a minus, as Mann delights in a reinterpretation rather than a straightforward remake of the TV series. Miami Vice is a victory of style over substance but when you've got a distinctive style like Mann's, it's very easy to forgive.

Review by Gavin Burke