War Dogs

Todd Phillips’ War Dogs makes mistakes early on in establishing it’s characters, which poisons the rest of the film so that it just…can’t become a good one.   It has the makings of a strong dark humored tale; filled with moments of suspense intertwined with the main character’s moral dilemma, and his varied relationships with the film’s other three significant characters.  But it makes that main character untrustworthy early on, and then almost asks immediately to sympathize with him; all I could do was feel bad for his wife.

The film follows two arms dealers, Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz (Miles Tenner), who get a government contract to supply weapons for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  David, the film’s narrator, tells us that he’s going to forego his backstory in order to jump right into the middle of things; he’s happily married, and less happily works as a massage therapist for rich Miami clients.  The film establishes both of these things enough for us to understand why he needs excitement in his life, and why he doesn’t want to upset his wife by telling her he’s doing something potentially dangerous.  The problem is that his wife is presented as someone so sweet and loyal, that it made me dislike David for lying to her before anything bad happened. Efraim is clearly a lousy person that’s only out for himself; while he is entertaining, he’s a jerk.

So there was my main problem.  Because by the time anything actually goes wrong, which the film’s prologue foretells, I only felt bad for David’s wife. Teller’s performance represents his career to date;  he’s compelling in some scenes, and unmemorable in others.  Hill is another mixed bag, as he proves again that he’s more than just a funny man, but he’s also a distraction at times when the story didn’t call for it.

Phillips is no stranger to outrageous stories (The Hangover), but he doesn’t have enough grit to handle the film’s more serious stuff; he does excel in certain action oriented moments, and it’s no surprise that he has a good timing for comedy, but he hasn’t perfected the ability to weave all of this together yet.  Bradley Cooper, a Phillips regular, is pretty good here,  bringing a commanding presence to the film in every scene he appears. But overall War Dogs can’t figure out if it wants to be like Scarface, which the characters idolize, or be its own man.  More importantly, I don’t think it even knows why it wants to be like Scarface.

A good soundtrack; some good performances at times, but the “War” in its title only represent the film’s conflict with itself.

Grade: C