Released: 30th October 2020 (Netflix)
Length: 116 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Director: Olivier Marchal
Starring: Lannick Gautry, Stanislas Merhar, Kaaris, David Belle, Patrick Catalifo and Jean Reno
When it comes to putting together a strong police drama, the balance between action, humanity and criminal elements is often a tricky one to balance. Rogue City, an entry into the genre from France, feels very half-hearted.
Taking place in the city of Marseille, Rogue City begins with a deadly shooting at a club that devolves into a greater criminal investigation. As the pressure grows on the law enforcement, a squad of policemen ventures outside of procedure to bring down their targets. As a more realistic take on corruption, dirty tactics and organised crime, Rogue City is a grim tale of a police force struggling to battle both organised crime and their own internal struggles. In terms of depth however, it falls short. While we mainly follow Richard Vronski (Lannick Gautry), a police captain; his colleagues including Willy Kapellian (Stanislas Merhar), Max Beaumont (Kaaris) and Zach Damato (David Belle) feel very weak by comparison. The film mostly cuts between them to show their individual perspectives on the crimes, but it also swaps to broader moments where the commissioner Ange Leonetti (Jean Reno) delivers some wider explanations. These scenes are well presented, but they don’t contain anything you wouldn’t see in other similar productions. The trouble with setting itself apart pulls Rogue City down from its rare qualities.
The team of officers in Rogue City is ultimately too wide and it doesn’t give the plot enough room to develop all of them. There are hints of varying characteristics among the cast, but they aren’t able to make much of an impact. When we focus on one character, there are some glimmers of them cracking under the stress and how it influences their behaviour. The acting ranges from gruff to angry which is par for the course in this type of genre, but it doesn’t make up for the lack of development. It’s difficult to hold sympathy for the danger the characters are put through when there isn’t much effort put into making them well-rounded. The villains are especially underwhelming which is baffling because Rogue City takes some time in briefing scenes to lay out their roles and attitudes. For the most part, they’re effectively a non-presence throughout the production. The film needed to build more of an emotional connection with its cast and it ultimately failed to do so.
In keeping with its more grounded tone, Rogue City doesn’t tip into extravagant territory with its action sequences. What’s here is mostly competent rather than highly intense. Gun battles in a claustrophobic apartment complex and a wider shoreline used for smuggling are compact and taut. The violence in each of these sequences is gritty, harrowing and unpredictable, which goes hand-in-hand with the nature of the criminal gang. The music on the other hand is rather generic, relying heavily on downbeat notes that don’t distinguish themselves from the film’s contemporaries. Acceptable, but unremarkable is the guiding principle behind the film’s production values.
Rogue City’s realistic tone and its approach to the psychological strain of police work does generate the occasionally worthwhile thrill. The problem is that it stretches itself too thin with a shallow narrative alongside a higher number of characters and not enough minutes to keep track of them all. None of the performers or producers are really at fault, but the end result could have fared much better.
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Mediocre)