Producers: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jeff Robinov, Kevin Walsh, John Graham and Alison Winter Director: Doug Liman Screenplay: Chuck MacLean and Casey Affleck Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow, Ron Perlman, Toby Onwumere, Ronnie Cho and André De Shields Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios/Prime Video
Grade: C
Doug Liman’s action dramedy has a lot going for it, in addition to the director’s proven way with such material: a couple of stars with individual charisma and good mutual spark, a strong supporting cast, and a heist script with potential to mix local Boston color with exciting set-pieces and cunning twists. The real mystery, unfortunately, turns out to be not so much what goes wrong for the mismatched protagonists of “The Instigators” as why the movie as a whole collapses into tiresome mediocrity despite all the promising ingredients.
The focal characters are Rory (Matt Damon) and Cobby (Casey Affleck, who co-wrote the script with Chuck MacLean). Rory’s a straight-arrow vet who’s deeply in debt for child support and, he suggests to his social worker/therapist Dr. Rivera (Hong Chau), suicidal over his inability to have contact with his son until the $32,000 is paid. Cobby’s an alcoholic ex-con with criminal connections.
One of those is Besegai (Michael Stuhlbarg), an intense small-time boss who hides behind a legal front—a bakery he runs with his chubby underling Richie (Alfred Molina). Besegai has a plan to rob corrupt Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman) of the loot he collects in cash “contributions” from wealthy favor-seekers at his campaign party on election night, when he’s expected to prevail once again. Unfortunately Besegai’s crew has fallen apart, and he has to rebuild it quickly. So he hires Rory and Cobby to pull of the heist, taking their orders from hot-tempered Scalvo (Jack Harlow).
Of course things go wrong. Not only does Miccelli lose, but by the time the three robbers arrive at the boat when his party is being held, the cash has already been sent ashore. Scalvo goes berserk and robs the mayor and his entourage of their valuables, including a silver bracelet Miccelli begs to keep, claiming it has sentimental value (although, as events will prove, its value to him depends more on greed than sentiment). Worse, Scalvo kills a cop and is himself killed, Cobby is wounded, and he and Rory escape empty-handed and chased by the cops, Besegai’s stooge Booch (Paul Walter Hauser—after all, he wants his role in the mess kept quiet) and Miccelli’s enforcers (including Ving Rhames’ stoic, implacable Frank Toomey, who’s directed to get that bracelet back). Cobby’s wound prompts Rory to ask Rivera for help, and worried that her patient might kill himself, she reluctantly becomes their pseudo-hostage, making their efforts to elude their pursuers even more complicated.
It’s hard to pinpoint why “The Instigators,” despite the constant twists and turns the script provides, ends up such a trifling exercise. But the problems pile up. Damon and Affleck have good rapport, but though their banter is sometimes amusing (Cobby’s frustration when Rory keeps asking Besegai questions as he lays out the plan, and then makes a point of writing down the answers, makes for an early highlight, and there are other clever back-and-forths along the way), it’s not consistently funny enough. The explanations behind the choices the guys make to save themselves aren’t totally implausible, but they’re not particularly inventive. One can understand why it was thought necessary to add a bit of romance to the equation, but Cobby’s flirting with Rivera (a pleasant but bland Chau) is just an offhand afterthought going nowhere. Except for Stuhlbarg, who livens up his few scenes with manic energy, the bad guys are a pretty dull lot: Molina and Toby Jones (as the mayor’s financial advisor) are pretty much wasted, Rhames coasts along on his grim façade, and Perlman just bellows his way through the proceedings. Naming one character John Wayne (Toby Onwumere) doesn’t help.
And while Liman and his behind-the-camera cohorts (including production designer Greg Berry, cinematographer Henry Braham and editors Saar Klein, William Goldenberg and Tatiana S. Riegel) stage competent action pieces—most notably a couple of vehicle chases and two building explosions—the result comes across as efficient rather than inspired, failing to elicit the adrenaline rush the director once was so capable of achieving. (The visuals are also too dark and washed-out for comfort.) Even Christophe Beck’s score seems to be going through the motions, and the decision to set wild rides through the city’s streets to Petula Clark’s musty “Downtown” reeks of flaccid nostalgia.
“The Instigators” isn’t awful, but it reminds you of many other movies, including ones made by Damon, Affleck and Liman, that were far more exciting and memorable. If you decide to watch it, though, you might as well stick through the credits to find out what happens in the north to the real instigators behind this robbery-gone-south.