Breaking, 2022.
Directed by Abi Damaris Corbin.
Starring John Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Selenis Leyva, Jeffrey Donovan, Olivia Washington, London Covington, Robb Derringer, Carmine Giovinazzo, Kate Burton, Albert Kong, Elise Neal, Kelli Dawn Hancock, Mel Fair, Keith Ewell, and Miriam Silverman.
SYNOPSIS:
When Marine Veteran Brian Brown-Easley is denied support from Veteran’s Affairs, financially desperate and running out of options, he takes a bank and several of its employees hostage, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with the police.
While it’s not an entirely new concept, it is a refreshingly daunting screenwriting task to portray someone committing an act of terror with empathy. Based on true events from 2017 and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin (co-writing alongside Kwame Kwei-Armah), Breaking sees John Boyegaa as former Marine and Iraq war veteran Brian Brown-Easley, out of options and desperate to retrieve funds that the Veterans Affairs are withholding. Divorced from Cassandra (Olivia Washington), Brian is still a loving family man motivated by giving his young daughter Kiah (London Covington) a better life just as he is confronting systemic injustices.
Suffering from PTSD and increasingly spiraling mental health (especially following a humiliating incident at the VA that we see later in the film via flashback), Brian, not without a moment of heavy contemplation, enters his local Wells Fargo bank and proceeds to start a withdrawal transaction. During that, he slides a note to the teller stating that he is carrying a bomb.
However, Brian has no interest in robbing the bank. Orchestrating this hostage situation is a plea for attention directed at the VA in hopes of finally righting a wrong. As such, Brian allows everyone in the building to leave aside from two high-ranking staffers, Rosa Diaz (Selenis Leyva) and Estel Valerie (Nicole Beharie), using their endangerment as a means to undergo negotiation talks.
Not entirely off his rocker, Brian shows about as much kindness as one can show someone when they are toying with human life as a means to an end; he assures that no one will get hurt and that he wants the money he is owed. Crucially, the money cannot come from the bank; this will not end until the score with the VA is settled. Wisely, the script occasionally tries to offer a glimpse into the lives of these hostages, either through directly communicating with Brian by trying to relay and show compassion or with digital notes saying goodbye to their loved ones just in case the worst happens.
Most of the above are executed with white knuckle tension and measured performances from everyone involved (John Boyega is a sweaty mess of paranoia and anxiety, aware that the only way out of the situation most likely comes with a bullet through the head). The initial goings are also intriguing as they offer up a sketch of who Brian is, while viewers come to conclusions about how far they can get on his side despite his horrific actions.
But it’s not long before Breaking breaks apart as Brian finds himself talking to TV news producers, inevitably climbing his way up towards interacting with a negotiator played by the late great Michael Kenneth Williams (delivering by far the best performance here, weathered and unsure but committed to defusing the situation without a body count). The dialogue loops with a meandering story that only has one foreseeable ending. Everything that was working until this point also becomes flawed and overplayed; there’s nothing left for the script to do aside from telling the actors to act out every role with a capital A.
It’s also surprising how surface-level the film is towards the VA, TV news cycles, military relations, and injustice. A good 45 minutes of Breaking are simply empty and devoid of anything remotely compelling no matter how much characters are talking to one another (which is also really thrilling considering the bland direction). By the time Breaking does arrive at its generic conclusion and cliché reveals with no insightful social commentary made (true story or not), the movie is just plain broken.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
