Mark Wahlberg delivers the goods in “Contraband,” a B-movie about smuggling in boozy, corrupt New Orleans. It may telegraph its punches and follow that “one last job” heist-picture formula. But the cascading collapse of first one best-laid plan and then another and the odd moment of jaw-dropping surprise make this a thriller with its share of nail-biting moments.
Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, a smuggler who has gone legit – selling household alarm systems. His old man, Bud, is in prison. His wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), runs a beauty salon. They have two kids. He’s wised up and left “the life” behind.
But his wife’s younger brother (Caleb Jones) hasn’t. And after he dumps drugs overboard when the Customs and Border Protection guys board his ship, the kid’s in the hole to a pretty bad hombre, played with his usual goateed glee by Giovanni Ribisi. To save the kid and his own family, Chris takes on that one-last-you-know-what.
And just as sure as Chris reassures Kate – “I know what I’m doing, nothing’s gonna happen,” you know at least half of that statement is a whopper. No amount of help from his pals (Ben Foster, Lukas Haas) will make this go smoothly.
Hiring the director of the film this is based on, the Icelandic thriller “Reykjavik-Rotterdam,” pays off not so much in the American-rewritten script, which follows a hard-bitten formula, even down to the dialogue. “Don’t TELL me you don’t miss this,” Ribisi’s smuggler-villain squeals when seeing his old colleague back on the beat.