Review: "Breaking Point"

A gritty crime drama starring Tom Berenger, Busta Rhymes, Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones, and Armand Assante, ‘Breaking Point’ tells a twisting tale of murder, corruption, and redemption. Defense attorney Steven Luisi, a former Assistant District Attorney and recovering drug addict is dropped directly in the center of this swirling storm when he decides to accept defense in a murder case. Luisi’s personal investigation into his client’s innocence and the whereabouts of the client and victims newborn child brings him face to face with demons both personal and public. Worst of all it brings him Al Bowen. Played by Busta Rhymes, Bowen is a visceral and cold blooded gang lord who also happens to be Luisi’s former drug dealer. It is not until Luisi meets and joins forces with Richard Allen a former associate of Bowen’s that things start to come together and the realization sets in that this crime may go much higher up than they both thought. Most importantly if they make it through alive the case may hold the key to absolving the stained souls they both carry.

This film took a huge risk; I will admit that first and foremost. It is understood that you will have to walk into any movie with some suspension of disbelief, you have to believe a car can explode from a single bullet and that things always happen with the most convenient of timing, however we as an audience do have our limits. I was sure that ‘Breaking Point’ was out to test those limits from the get go with the scenario we are given for the newborn who goes missing after the murder. The whole thing is about as plausible as Willy Wonka and his delightful chocolate factory. Yet, during this the film manages to keep a cold, straight, face about itself allowing us to accept what has happened and move on rather than laugh. Without this sequence working the rest of the film would be a joke and they managed to pull it off. The rest of the story is a labyrinth of damnable things lead by the movie’s front and center villain Al Bowen. Busta Rhyme’s Bowen is a cold, abhorrent gangster who we find out very quickly has no hang ups with violence as a means to accomplish the tasks at hand. Rhyme’s creates a character that is downright scary, not just due to his physical size but because after 11 seconds of screen time you know that this guy would kill a kitten shooting rainbows from its eyes if it meant another dollar for him. The most surprising part is that Busta manages to maintain with dialogue that is at times good and others downright laughable. The shining star of this film though? Well that has to be Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones who really surprised the hell out of me with his performance; Jones was so believable in his role that he made everyone else look worse. Granted, I have a feeling that not everyone was giving one hundred percent on this one but Kirk Jones certainly wasn’t one of them, the guy brought it every time he stepped on screen. Tom Berenger, it pains me to say, was the main holdout for me. Though he played his part ably I just didn’t feel like he had his heart in the character and was just going through the motions until someone yelled “Cut!” When your main character is the least believable on screen, you have a problem. Now when it comes to actual story this flick has no shortage, even if you have to wait until the final 20 minutes to understand all you’ve seen. There is so much going on and so many things partially told or hinted at that you end up confused until the big reveal(s) late in the film. Personally I think this could have been handled better, but again surprisingly the film still worked.

Will this movie win the best picture Oscar for 2009? Of course it won’t. Was it a fun film to watch despite its flaws? Well my friends to that question I answer YES. This movie was an anomaly for me, as I watched it I was finding so many things that I wanted to complain about but at the same time I was engrossed in what was going on and having a pretty good time throughout. This is without a doubt thanks to the heart put forth by Busta Rhymes and Kirk Jones, not to mention the gripping nature of the consistent twists and dizzying turns in the story. In the end leaving the audience confused until the end was a bit of an effective device as it kept you wondering what the hell was going on. a really viewer involved film that has you not only answering the questions the characters are after but also your own questions about the characters themselves. I’ll leave the decision on whether to see this in theaters or not up to you, but I would definitely recommend seeing it at some point in some form as I was pleasantly surprised with the end result.