Broken City

It was very refreshing to see an old-fashioned, film-noir crime drama done solidly.   That about summarizes what I can say about this movie, which may have not done as great at the box office but is certainly in my eyes, a sleeper hit.  Mark Wahlberg stars as an ex-cop turned private investigator entangled up in the politics of New York's mayor, played by Russel Crowe.  Rounding out the excellent cast of this thriller are Catherine Zeta Jones, Jeffrey Wright, and Barry Peppers.  Broken City is certainly a well done updated homage to the great film noir of the 40's and 50's detective-crime dramas.  Seeing this movie, reminded me so much of those movies that I loved and grew up on, which had that good snappy dialogue, great twist and turns, and great characters of duality inhabiting a seedy urban city.  Mark Wahlberg may not be Humphrey Bogart, but he fits the bill of the flawed everyman just as well as his co-stars fit in to their parts.  The ode to that genre is further balanced by a modern day relevant plot and character driven complications as diverse as redemption, love, and power.  In fact, it's all the more amazing for director Allen Payne and his production team along with the amount of talent and star power in this film, that they don't erode the stylistic integrity of film-noir and the straight-no chaser attribute that it comes with, by easily  deviating or exploiting into one of the usual Hollywood formulas that tend to weaken the story or make it just a star vehicle.  It's just very good shared film-making from all aspects.