CHENNAI: “Mile 22” may sound like a strange title, but it is within this
distance from an airfield to the American Embassy in Indocarr (a
fictionalized version of perhaps South Korea) where most of the action
unfolds.
A mystery agent, Li Noor (Iko Uwais), walks into the embassy with an
asylum request. In return, he volunteers to hand over a code to decipher
the location of shipments of cesium, a chemical capable of mass
destruction. The code is inside a disc, which will deconstruct in eight
hours.
James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) and his team of American commandos in charge
of anti-terror operations are asked to escort Noor from the embassy to
an airfield 22 miles away, where a waiting plane will take him away.
It is never clear why Noor turns himself in, and the film, which marks
the fourth time that director Peter Berg and Wahlberg are collaborating,
is equally perplexing at other places.
While their earlier film, “Patriots Day,” marked a high point (with
“Lone Survivor” and “Deepwater Horizon” flying at various levels), “Mile
22” seems to have hit the bottom. The two have announced that it is the
first of a trilogy, and it seems like a desperate attempt to start a
franchise.
Much of the movie’s confusion comes down to its innumerable subplots.
Silva is bitter most of the time, abusive, violent and driven to
lecturing people to an extent that it drives them mad. Sometimes, he
comes off as a habitual killer. Supposedly bipolar, orphaned at 11,
married and divorced three times, he is bizarre. But he is also
strangely entertaining.
The other bit of fun, although bloody, comes from Uwais’ martial arts
hand-to-hand combat at the embassy’s detention center, while the painful
divorce of team member Alice Kerr (Lauren Cohan) and her separation
from her little daughter offer tearjerking moments. Much of all these
could have been excised, save for Uwais’ bare-fisted fight, which is the
movie’s high point.
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