CRISIS
****
Director: Nicholas Jarecki
Screenplay: Nicholas Jarecki
Principal cast:
Gary Oldman
Armie Hammer
Angeline Lilly
Greg Kinnear
Michelle Rodriguez
Lilly-Rose Depp
Country: Canada/Belgium
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 118 mins.
Australian release date: 18 March 2021.
Co-produced, written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki, Crisis is an apt title for a movie that takes on the opioid epidemic that has plagued the United States since the 1990s, a controversial topic that warrants exposure. As over-the-counter opioids became increasingly available for pain management, hundreds of thousands of people died from overdoses. In fact, between 1999 and 2017 nearly 400,000 deaths were attributed to their overuse (and a card on the tail of the film tells us that currently 100,000 are dying annually, a figure that increases by 20% a year). It’s a shocking statistic. Jarecki’s screenplay combines three stories to examine how this has happened and clearly shows us the death and destruction that has resulted from the legal and illegal trade in these synthetic opioids. We learn that Big Pharma is as complicit in this misery as those who sell the drugs on the black market and that the story is “inspired by true events”.
DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer) is a Detroit-based undercover operative who is trying to infiltrate a major drug distribution ring operating out of Montreal, while also desperately trying to save his sister, Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp), from her addiction to ‘Oxy’ (Oxycodone, aka OxyContin). He becomes entangled in a fast-moving operation as he tries to simultaneously ensnare a Canadian cartel headed by a nasty drug lord code-named ‘Mother’ and a US distribution gang. Meanwhile, an architect, Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly), herself a recovering ‘Oxy’ addict, is attempting to get to the bottom of her son’s death, a tragic event that the police have deemed a suicide, and she finds herself getting deeper and deeper into danger as she investigates the murky world of cross-border smuggling. Last, but by no means least, is university professor Dr. Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman), whose lab does work for a large pharmaceutical company that’s trying to develop a non-addictive painkiller. When he expresses concerns about his research into the new product, the college dean (Greg Kinnear) icily reminds him that the school relies on the grants that the drug company bestows and if there are no endowments, there’s no college. Inevitably, these three narrative strands eventually intertwine into a compelling whole.
Nicholas Jarecki’s previous film was 2012’s Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere. That movie took on the subject of corruption in the world of high finance, so he’s already proved himself to be a director who’s not afraid to take on the big levers in society. In Crisis he has employed the same technique of using the thriller format to cloak an investigation into a much bigger issue. His script is not flawless, but it does expose the tragedy caused by the misuse and misappropriation of prescription drugs. Talking about Crisis, he says, “I was always very interested in the films that look at something from many viewpoints and tell multiple stories. There are classics like Traffic and 21 Grams... I’ve loved the tales of these intersecting characters and narratives for a long time. After Arbitrage I wondered: could there ever be a film like that about pills? Something that was able to explore many aspects of the topic through different characters and emotions - something that could really look at the whole issue. At the time [2010] the opioid crisis wasn’t where it is now. But the idea stayed with me.” He has chosen the right cast to convey his idea: Oldman is at the top of his game as a man attempting to right a wrong he sees about to be perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. He’s superb as this hesitant, somewhat insecure professor who grows increasingly assertive as he confronts the forces aligned against him. It’s a very different role to the one he played as Herman Mankiewicz in his previous film, Mank; Hammer and Lilly also deliver strong characterisations of two people on the verge of spiralling out of control.
From the impactful opening scene, in which a young man is being chased through the snow near the USA/Canadian border, we begin to understand how the lethal trade in these powerful pharmaceuticals succeeds in corrupting every echelon of society, from the lowest to the highest. Hopefully, accessible films like Crisis will assist in bringing to light the deadly seriousness of this real-life crisis, so that more people will speak up about closing down this insidious market.
Screenplay: Nicholas Jarecki
Principal cast:
Gary Oldman
Armie Hammer
Angeline Lilly
Greg Kinnear
Michelle Rodriguez
Lilly-Rose Depp
Country: Canada/Belgium
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 118 mins.
Australian release date: 18 March 2021.
Co-produced, written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki, Crisis is an apt title for a movie that takes on the opioid epidemic that has plagued the United States since the 1990s, a controversial topic that warrants exposure. As over-the-counter opioids became increasingly available for pain management, hundreds of thousands of people died from overdoses. In fact, between 1999 and 2017 nearly 400,000 deaths were attributed to their overuse (and a card on the tail of the film tells us that currently 100,000 are dying annually, a figure that increases by 20% a year). It’s a shocking statistic. Jarecki’s screenplay combines three stories to examine how this has happened and clearly shows us the death and destruction that has resulted from the legal and illegal trade in these synthetic opioids. We learn that Big Pharma is as complicit in this misery as those who sell the drugs on the black market and that the story is “inspired by true events”.
DEA agent Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer) is a Detroit-based undercover operative who is trying to infiltrate a major drug distribution ring operating out of Montreal, while also desperately trying to save his sister, Emmie (Lily-Rose Depp), from her addiction to ‘Oxy’ (Oxycodone, aka OxyContin). He becomes entangled in a fast-moving operation as he tries to simultaneously ensnare a Canadian cartel headed by a nasty drug lord code-named ‘Mother’ and a US distribution gang. Meanwhile, an architect, Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly), herself a recovering ‘Oxy’ addict, is attempting to get to the bottom of her son’s death, a tragic event that the police have deemed a suicide, and she finds herself getting deeper and deeper into danger as she investigates the murky world of cross-border smuggling. Last, but by no means least, is university professor Dr. Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman), whose lab does work for a large pharmaceutical company that’s trying to develop a non-addictive painkiller. When he expresses concerns about his research into the new product, the college dean (Greg Kinnear) icily reminds him that the school relies on the grants that the drug company bestows and if there are no endowments, there’s no college. Inevitably, these three narrative strands eventually intertwine into a compelling whole.
Nicholas Jarecki’s previous film was 2012’s Arbitrage, starring Richard Gere. That movie took on the subject of corruption in the world of high finance, so he’s already proved himself to be a director who’s not afraid to take on the big levers in society. In Crisis he has employed the same technique of using the thriller format to cloak an investigation into a much bigger issue. His script is not flawless, but it does expose the tragedy caused by the misuse and misappropriation of prescription drugs. Talking about Crisis, he says, “I was always very interested in the films that look at something from many viewpoints and tell multiple stories. There are classics like Traffic and 21 Grams... I’ve loved the tales of these intersecting characters and narratives for a long time. After Arbitrage I wondered: could there ever be a film like that about pills? Something that was able to explore many aspects of the topic through different characters and emotions - something that could really look at the whole issue. At the time [2010] the opioid crisis wasn’t where it is now. But the idea stayed with me.” He has chosen the right cast to convey his idea: Oldman is at the top of his game as a man attempting to right a wrong he sees about to be perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. He’s superb as this hesitant, somewhat insecure professor who grows increasingly assertive as he confronts the forces aligned against him. It’s a very different role to the one he played as Herman Mankiewicz in his previous film, Mank; Hammer and Lilly also deliver strong characterisations of two people on the verge of spiralling out of control.
From the impactful opening scene, in which a young man is being chased through the snow near the USA/Canadian border, we begin to understand how the lethal trade in these powerful pharmaceuticals succeeds in corrupting every echelon of society, from the lowest to the highest. Hopefully, accessible films like Crisis will assist in bringing to light the deadly seriousness of this real-life crisis, so that more people will speak up about closing down this insidious market.