THE INFILTRATOR
US, 2016, 126 minutes, Colour.
Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, Benjamin Bratt, Diane Kruger, Juliet Aubrey, Olympia Dukakis, Amy Ryan, Jason Isaacs, Yul Vazquez, Art Malik, Michael Pare, Elena Anaya, Said Taghmaoui.
Directed by Brad Furman.
How can they do it? And why?
These are two questions that this film raises. How can men and women go undercover, the deception that they have created, no matter how significant the motivation, the perennial risks and dangers, the false relationships that they have to establish and maintain which involve betrayal and emotional damage?
As can be seen from the title, this is a story about such undercover work. it is based on the memoir of Robert Mazur, the protagonist of the story, his memories of his undercover work on behalf of American agencies, especially in the 1980s and the spread of cocaine smuggling, the huge importations to the US, the traffic from Colombia and the influence of Pablo Escobar. Bryan Cranston gives a strong performance as Mazur, though, despite the darkened hair and moustache, he does seem too old for the role and the character.
It is 1985, in Florida. The film recreates the period, the look, clothing, the music and songs of the period. It opens with Mazur, in disguise, involved in an exchange of drugs and money followed by a raid. He is suffering from a wound and is entitled to retire, the authorities offering him the possibility but his refusing. He has connections with another officer, Hispanic, Abreu, played with a cheeky bravura by John Leguizamo. He has some local informants and the point is made that the agents should follow the money trails rather than the drug trails. The two set up a project, false names and documents, a dummy bank, making connections with some of the local drug dealers, especially those in the Escobar organisation, overcoming suspicions, beginning to launder money and gaining a reputation that leads them to crooked bankers in Panama and, eventually in France and England.
In the meantime, Robert Mazur has a loving wife, Evelyn, and two children. There are a number of domestic sequences and Mazur’s wife’s support for him in his work.
And the difficulty arises when one of the locals hosts Bob at a bar and procures a prostitute for him – Bob improvising with an excuse that he has a fiancee. This means that the agency head, played by Amy Ryan, has to organise an agent who can join Bob as his fiance, Kathy. She is played by Diane Kruger, a professional agent, who is challenged also in her undercover work, keeping up the facade of the happy engaged couple even when it leads them to New York City and friendship with a significant dealer, played by Benjamin Bratt, and his wife.
The audience is constantly tense along with Bob and Kathy as they live their dangerous second life.
The engagement become significant and authorities decide that the wedding date should go ahead and that all their contacts should be invited to the wedding, the deception being so convincing that everyone accepts. Then the raid.
As with so many true stories, there are photos of the principal characters during the final credits, information about those arrested and their sentences, as well as of Bob Mazur and his family – and the surprise that he has continued his undercover work in succeeding decades.
1. A true story? The 1980s? The drug situation? Columbia, Escobar? The American agencies? Undercover work?
2. The re-creation of the period, Florida, costumes and decor? The musical score, the songs? Home, bars, clubs, offices, Panama and the banks, sequences in Paris?
3. The title, the author and his memoir, his life, character, work, family, dangers, risks, achievement?
4. Robert Mazur, Bryan Cranston’s performance? The introduction, in the bar, undercover, flirting with the waitress, drug currency, the exchange of drugs, the bust and the arrests?
5. At home, with his wife, children, normal, his wife’s acceptance of his work, yet the tensions, love, family life, his being wounded, the possibility for him to retire, the interviews with the authorities, his not retiring?
6. Abreu, intruding into the house, his ideas, undercover work, out jogging, the idea of following the cash rather than the drugs?
7. Bonni Tischler, the other authorities, local, Washington, agreement with Robert’s principles, the details of changing his identity, the banker? Abreu and the informants, the cash, the contacts? The meetings? The Colombians and their testing out Bob, Bob as a banker, Abreu and his role, cultivating friends, jovial, making the project credible? The Colombians
tentative, the cheques, the amounts, the money-laundering? Bob and success, getting a name?
8. Introduction to Espinosa, his manner, the tattooed assistant, effete, his role, the sexual innuendo, Bob’s reaction?
9. Further talks, meetings, clubs, the informants and their sexual behaviour, organising the prostitute for Bob, his explanation that he had a fiancee?
10. Bonni Tischler and her reaction, choosing Kathy as the fiancee, in herself, her work, living up to her role, keeping up the impressions, effective? A later visit to Evelyn to get Bob’s suit for the wedding? Her reassuring Evelyn?
11. The toll on Bob, the deceptions, undercover, the personal contacts, the emotional consequences? Abreu with the informants, mixing with them, sleazy situations, holding the man who was shot, the effect on him, yet his bravura?
12. Bob, the Panama contacts, the phone calls, the visit, explaining the benefits, the personalities of the men in Panama, testing, their acceptance, the meetings? The nature of the deals?
13. Bob and the contact with Roberto, his importance in the organisation? Pleasant but able to profit from the drug situation? The visit to New York, Roberto and Gloria, the daughter, the apartment, their life, the friendship, socialising, the shopping, the gift of the jewels, Roberto and his comment on previous betrayals?
14. The consequences for Bob and Kathy, putting forward the wedding, inviting all the contacts to the wedding?
15. The build-up, Bob and his visit to Paris, the money-laundering in Paris, the contacts? The meetings, the decision to go to London? The importance of the British connection, the bank – and its ultimate exposure, collapse?
16. The contacts from Washington, the plan, the wedding, the invitations, the arrangements?
17. The date of the wedding, getting ready, Kathy and her dress, the crowd, all the visitors, including Roberto? The beginning of the ceremony, the priest?
18. The signal, the detail of the raids, the arrests, Gloria and her anger, Roberto and his sense of betrayal? The bankers and their shock? Having to hand in the profits, Kathy giving up the pearls? The success of the project?
19. The information given at the end, the success of the undercover work, the blow to Escobar and the Colombians, the information about the CIA and its dealings and building up of funds, the breakup of banking institutions?
20. The photos of the actual characters at the end – and the information that Robert continued with his undercover work?
