The Line

(2009) The Line CRIME DRAMA

Written and produced by R. Ellis Frazier "The Line" as the movie is called is another slang for the 'borderline' between the US and Mexico, with Afghan diplomats volunteering to bring illegal drugs across the border without questioned. Centers mostly on 2 people of hired shooter, Mark Shields (Ray Liotta also credited as executive producer) who has a substance abuse problem along as he suffers from insomnia because of a previous assignment, and a drug cartel, René Pelon (Esai Morales) appointed by a cartel relative who is said to be dying, Javier Salazar (Andy Garcia). With more twists and revelations.

La Linea is a great film, but it is also a bit of a trick, which may hurt the film eventually. No doubt that the distributors and the Hollywood machine will try to market this film as a topical action film snatched right out of the headlines. In actuality, La Linea is a classic character study of several complex people who converge and/or collide in the very dangerous city of Tijuana, Mexico.

Ray Liotta plays a hired assassin (whose paymaster we don't know until the end), who heads down in the underbelly of Tijuana to track down a the newly installed head of the Cartel (Esai Morales). The problem is that Esai Morales' character is trying to move the Cartels business from Cocaine (which, in this story, is approved by the US government), to Afghani Heroin. This decision sets into motion an internal struggle for control of the crime syndicate, as well as triggers the US government to send in assassins to get rid of the problem.

Sounds like an action movie for Dolph Lundgren, right? No. Interestingly enough, La Linea is really a multiple character study: An assassin haunted by guilt. An uber-violent Cartel leader that has to go to confession everyday. The assassins sidekick who is more interested in local hookers than getting the hit done. A local prostitute and single mother who takes a stranger in and cares for him. These are all story lines that thread through this very dark tail. I did enjoy the film, and I would definitely recommend it. My only hope is that the powers that be market the film for what it is, so that people who are looking to see a Dolph Lundgren film, don't pick it up and are disappointed. This is a very well done film, with beautiful cinematography and from what I understand, completely independently financed. We need more like it.

The Line, or La Linea as it was released under, is a downbeat little film about American assassin Mark Shields (Ray Liotta), following him as he navigates the treacherous political and criminal terrain in Mexico, right around the time of a suspected overthrow and shift in cartel power. The leader of the tijuana cartel (a listless Andy Garcia) is terminally ill, and a sadistic young upstart (Esai Morales) wants to take over the business. This creates a lot of commotion and violence, much of which is dealt out by Liotta, with the help of a great big sniper rifle. Now the plot is pretty muddled, and I saw it a lot time ago. I was never really clear who Liotta is actually working for, the Mexican faction or a couple shady agency dudes (Joe Morton and Bruce Davison). In any case, he's wounded in a gunfight and takes shelter with a Mexican woman (Valerie Cruz) and her son in a small village nearby. It's a meandering little film that doesn't quite know if it wants to be an action flick, a drug war docudrama or a noirish character study, but dabbles in all three before arriving at a conclusion that I had to rewind at least three times to understand, and then still didn't get it. Armand Assante wanders around as a mysterious preacher, Danny Trejo shows his mug as a deadly cartel assassin, as well as Gary Daniels and Kevin Gage in smaller roles. Not really a great flick, but peppered with enough familiar faces and genre tradition to garner some interest.

It is very difficult to give something new to the audience. Specially when talking about such a controversial topics as Drug dealing, mafia, terrorism, cartels Etc.

Being Mexican myself I looked forward to see how a new director would portray this "not to take lightly" topic. The first impression I got as I began to watch the movie was the serious influence of Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic", a fabulous movie which provides an unusual vision of the drug underworld. As the movie continued it was not difficult to identify some the similarity with some other movies, not only character wise, but also concerning plot, conflict and even cinematography.

Shields' character is a weird mix of Denzel's Creasy in Man on fire and Pierce Brosnan's hit-man in Matador. Both very well structured characters, but when combined do not have the same effect.

It is difficult to be bring something new to Drug dealing movies, particularly because everything has pretty much been said about dealing drugs; so when a director tries to give some extra dramatic flavor, it has a contradictory effect, It is appealing but not very coherent.

Check out this movie it is not completely dismissible, specially if you take into account its independent nature. But do not expect to see anything worth referring to in the future.

Wow, it's getting to where I really can't trust IMDb ratings to decide what to watch anymore. This movie is underrated. I suspect many people who rated it low, wanted more explosions and car chases. This is not an action film. It is a subtle yet intense look at how a person can be extremely tough yet so very vulnerable at the same time. There are no feel good characters. No role model action heroes. No clear cut lines between good and bad.

Other reviewers have noted that it was confusing. Admittedly the script was confusing at first. It wasn't clear who was motivated by what, and what flashbacks meant what to whom. But about halfway through the film it starts to come together beautifully and continues to do so to the interesting and somewhat moving end. If you stop waiting for the gratuitous action scenes which never happen, and just watch the story, it works well. Yes, some plot points seem a little unrealistic, but that's why I put the story at only a 7.

While the story is good, the acting is all around superb. I have never been the biggest Liotta fan. He's good, but like a lot of tough guy character actors, sometimes his tough guy persona crosses the line into bluffery in my opinion. Not here. He was near perfect. Almost everyone was, including minor characters played by people I have never heard of. No fake looking bluffery, nothing overdone. I would give this a 7 for story and direction, but the acting puts it up to 8.

Also, the music was as wonderfully chosen as the actors. There was a point in the middle of the movie where one character began to cry. We aren't shown explicitly why, no details, but we are shown enough to understand and fill in her story for ourselves. I found that one scene, with the song from Melody Gardot, particularly beautiful.

In a nutshell, I would describe this as a smoulderingly intense drama. If you are looking for an action thriller you will be disappointed.