You don’t have to get too far into The Instigators before you realize just how low a priority it is for everyone involved. The movie stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, two actors whose canonical Boston connection precedes them. Damon was a certified movie star not too long ago, and Affleck is an Oscar winner, but neither is at their peak now. Damon is in the midst of a run of lackadaisical performances in substandard movies (the big exception: he’s one of the best supporting performances in Oppenheimer). Affleck was never more than a character actor but not even an Oscar could rehab his reputation after credible accusations of sexual harassment came out about him in 2016. So now we have The Instigators, an odd couple crime comedy searching desperately for charisma with two actors who feel like they’d rather be anywhere else.
Our director is Doug Liman, another artist with genuine action movie bona fides. Only ten years ago, he made Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise, an action blockbuster so good it will reinvigorate your fervor for studio filmmaking. That Edge of Tomorrow was a flop is one of the great Hollywood tragedies and has defined Liman’s wayward output since. He directs The Instigators like someone who doesn’t realize that an action comedy needs stakes or suspense (or excitement). The sustained, lethargic energy of this film makes one wonder how much time these people cared to spend with one another. A supporting cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Hong Chau, Ron Perlman, Ving Rhames, Toby Jones, Alfred Molina, and Jack Harlow, do their best to raise the temperature, but they all feel like they’re overcompensating as a result.
Damon plays Rory, an ex-marine whose divorce and child support debt has sunken him into a deep depression. He tells his shrink, Donna (Chau), that he wants to pay off his debts before he “punches his ticket”. Affleck plays Cobby, an ex-con alcoholic who spends his days at a bar, disliked by all. They don’t know each other but they’re both recruited for a major score by Scalvo (Harlow), whose working for Boston crime boss, Mr. Besegai (Stuhlbarg). The plan? Crash the election celebration of the corrupt Mayor Miccelli (Perlman). The night of his re-election plans to be a major scene of graft, which means large amounts of accounted cash there for the taking. The first thing that goes wrong is that Miccelli actually loses – a result Besegai swore couldn’t happen. As things continue to go sideways, Rory and Cobby end up on the run with the entire Boston PD after them.
Molina putters and murmurs his way through the role of Richie, a baker who appears to be Besegai’s no. 2. Ving Rhames appears about a third of the way through as a Special Ops officer named Toomey who drives a tank through the streets of Boston, hired by Miccelli to find his special bracelet – that Rory and Cobby have in their possession. The degrees of criminality between all these side characters are never very clear. Is Toomey as corrupt as Miccelli or is he an officer bound by duty? Is Richie as high on the chain as Besegai? Are Richie and Besegai lovers? Any answer feels credible and any answer feels absurd. About halfway through the movie, Donna joins the Rory and Cobby on their run from the cops, worried about Rory’s suicidal ideation. There’s a flicker of romantic tension between her and Cobby. The flicker exists only because it’s in the screenplay. Any chemistry between Chau and Affleck is nil.
The most damning fact about The Instigators is that even Michael Stuhlbarg is bad, and I didn’t even think that was possible. The contrast between the concerningly low energy of our main stars and the embarrassingly high energy of our character roles leaves the film in complete limbo. The film seems edited to its bones, with everything left out, including any semblance of a heart. Any feelings you’re supposed to have – about Rory’s depression, about Cobby’s alcoholism, about a prospective relationship between Cobby and Donna – is flattened by the movie’s seeming lack of interest in any of it. This all falls on Liman. And it’s particularly frustrating since we know that this filmmaker is capable of creating compelling drama and crafting good performances. Perhaps we will see that kind of Liman film again, but The Instigators provides little hope of that.
Directed by Doug Liman