Thank you to Lionsgate for the opportunity to review Bent!
I was pleasantly surprised by this movie! In the age of special effects, Bent stands out for the focus on the cast, it’s acting abilities and of course, the story.
Karl Urban plays Danny Gallagher, a cop that is doing undercover work with a partner, Charlie Horvath (Vinent Spano) who happens to toe the line and sometimes straddle it. The partners are working on a drug bust when something goes terribly wrong. Gallagher’s partner is killed and since no one else is around, Gallagher takes the fall and gets sent to prison for three years. Once released, he vows to make amends for his partner’s death. He meets with a father-like figure named Jimmy Murtha (Andy Garcia) that offers to help however and whenever he can. While on his path for vengeance, the wife of a government official is killed by car bomb. The intriguing thing here, the car that the wife was driving that day, was the husband’s, her car was in the shop. Bits and pieces of the story’s puzzle come together. Gallagher finds that the wife had a lover named Rebecca (Sofia Vergara), who is also working for someone with a lot of power, that could be a government agency. Rebecca leads Gallagher down the rabbit hole that makes him change course when he was close to delivering the justice for his fallen partner’s death. It’s as if she is choosing or is being told to run interference.
I’ve liked pretty much everything that Karl Urban stars in, from Judge Dredd in DREDD to Bones in Star Trek. He fits the role of an undercover cop. Sofia Vergara stands out, because this is definitely outside of her “norm” on TV, with a series such as Modern Family. Never thought I’d see her as sort of a semi-action star, but it just works in this movie. Of course, you can’t forget Andy Garcia and his talents.
The only thing that comes to mind that could have been done different, it feels as if this was a short book that was stretched to fit a movie.
Bent is based on characters created by novelist J.P. O’Donnell.
Rating: B+
BENT (Lionsgate)
Cast:
Karl Urban, Sofia Vergara, Grace Byers, Andy Garcia
Synopsis:
When a drug bust goes wrong, ex-cop Danny Gallagher’s (Karl Urban, Lord of the Rings) quest for justice leads him to the car-bomb murder of a government official’s wife. As Gallagher learns the woman’s secret lover was a seductive federal agent (Sofia Vergara, “Modern Family”), he finds himself under fire. But from who — his own cops, a vengeful drug lord, the CIA, or someone even more ruthless? This pulse-pounding thriller also stars Grace Byers (“Empire”) and Andy Garcia (Ocean’s Eleven).
Directed by: Bobby Moresco
Trailer:
