Detective Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) works in the cold case division of the NYPD. He’s still reeling from the unsolved murder of his wife and baby son. For three years, he’s personally investigated every lead he can to try and solve the murder himself. When one of those leads takes him to an upscale party, he meets Natasha (Olga Kurylenko), a woman strung out on a drug called Valkyr. Max thinks she might be able to help in his search for his wife’s killer. However, she’s murdered before she can provide any information and Max is the prime suspect in her death.
Natasha’s sister, Mona Sax (Mila Kunis), hunts down Max hoping to get some justice but eventually realizes that he didn’t kill Natasha. The two begin to work together to try and solve the mystery of Natasha’s death, with Max hoping it will also provide more insight into what happened to his family.
From that description, it might sound like Max Payne is an episode of “Law and Order.” However, it’s the latest of Hollywood’s big screen video game adaptations. The original game was a film-noir styled, third-person action adventure that had Max searching for his family’s murderer. The similarities between the game and the movie end there. The game was a full-on action tour-de-force with lots of bullet-time effects and grisly shoot-outs. The movie is a dark, stoic affair with very little action and a minimum of gore. Fans of the game will be sorely disappointed. Fans of “Law and Order”, however, might think this is high-octane stuff.
Mark Wahlberg’s portrayal of the title character required very little acting. A stone-face with the occasional grimace or scream sums up the emotional range of Max Payne. In fact, there’s a minimum of emotion displayed by any character in the film. Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, who plays an Internal Affairs officer, is the only one who seems to be allowed to show any range and he’s on-screen for approximately 10 minutes.
I’m not sure the movie answers the questions it raises in terms of plot development. If I hadn’t watched the credits all the way through, I wouldn’t have seen the resolution of a key plot point. If the director feels that this particular moment is so disposable that it can be tagged on after the credits roll and, presumably, after the theater has emptied (or the “stop” key has been pressed on the DVD player’s remote) then I doubt that much care has been taken in the handling of those moments that are on the screen when there’s an audience.
Pass on Max Payne.
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Buy on Amazon!
