Inspired by true events, Crisis is a crime thriller film written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki that tells the stories of three individuals connected by a drug smuggling epidemic.
The film follows a university professor Doctor Tyrone Brower (Gary Oldman), who is trying to stop the release of a new painkiller that he has discovered could be potentially dangerous, a single mother and recovering oxycontin addict Claire Reimann (Evangeline Lilly), who attempts to solve the suspicious murder of her son, and Jake Kelly (Armie Hammer), an undercover agent who is attempting to arrange a massive drug bust.
I was thoroughly impressed with how Crisis was able to tell the stories of three different people in varying scenarios but still managed to connect them together through the drug epidemic depicted in the film. Although this was great, there were admittedly certain moments in the film that also lingered too long and outstayed their welcome.
While I did enjoy all the performances of the cast, I was most impressed with Evangeline Lilly’s portrayal of Claire Reimann. Over the course of the film, I believe that it is Claire Reimann’s character that progresses the most. Claire goes from being a recovering addict to an architect working to support herself and her son. But when her son is murdered, she experiences an emotional downward spiral and becomes a vigilante. Her story was the most compelling and the progression and development her character went through could have very well been its own film without the other characters.
Quite often between scenes, director Nicolas Jarecki includes slow panning shots of the city landscape, which I felt was a clever and smooth way of transitioning between scenes. As it is also snowing where the film is set, there are scenes that take place outside in the snow, which in a way, helped set the dark tone of Crisis.
Crisis, though flat in some places, is a film that manages to convincingly tell the stories of three people from seemingly different worlds who all have, in one way or another, been affected by the raging drug epidemic. Jarecki successfully does this without the film ever becoming convoluted, an achievement in itself, given the densely rich subject matter.
Crisis will open in Australia Cinemas from March 18th 2021.