Netflix drops a new Ben Affleck movie, Animals, marking his return not only to the director’s chair but also to the crime-thriller genre that he’s always good at. Aside from his clunky Lives by Night, Affleck’s track record from Gone Baby Gone to The Town and Argo proves he can craft engrossing thrillers. I was hoping the same for Animals, but the fact that the streaming giant unveils his latest directorial effort with little fanfare gets me wondering if this is a dud after all. Still, Animals begins promisingly with Mark Kimball (Ben Affleck), a wealthy lawyer who uses his family fortune to run independently for mayor in Los Angeles.
Affleck does a good job building the high-stakes environment of a political campaign as Mark and his manager, Sam (Steven Yeun), work around the clock to win over the all-important Latino community against the incumbent. He even makes good use of his fluent Spanish as an added advantage to show how much he cares for these marginalized voters, but despite all the efforts, his manager warns Mark that the odds are against him in the poll.
As if it wasn’t a pressure-cooker scenario enough, Mark receives an anonymous call on Halloween night that his adolescent son Denny (Christopher Woodley) has been abducted while he’s out trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Mark initially dismisses the kidnapper as a prank, but the voice on the other end of the line means business: a $7 million ransom in cash by tonight, or his son dies. Panic sets in as Mark and his therapist wife, Abigail (Kerry Washington), desperately try to figure out a way to gather such a large amount of money on short notice.
Then comes the suggestion from Sam, telling them there’s an option, albeit costlier, of enlisting Dayle Burton (Gillian Anderson), a powerful fixer who will offer the money but also comes with an exorbitant million-dollar fee as part of her service agreement. But for some reason, an unlikely twist of fate happens when the supposedly abducted Denny shows up at home, much to the relief of Mark and Abigail.
And yet, the nightmare is far from over after the kidnapper turns out to be abducting the wrong child. Not just a random kid, but rather Hector, the young son of Ramon (Luis Gerardo Méndez), the illegal immigrant who happens to be the boyfriend of Mark and Abigail’s Mexican nanny, Cecilia (Adriana Paz). This leads to a dilemma of whether Mark would do the same thing to pay for the ransom, even if it isn’t his own son in danger. He has the choice not to, but then again, it would cost him a problem that he can’t afford to lose: Refusing to help Ramon and Cecilia in saving Hector would backfire on his campaign since Mark prioritizes the welfare of the Latino community, causing him to jeopardize his dream even further of becoming a mayor.
Up until this point, the kidnapping story sure sounds familiar since it shares the thematic and structural narrative of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 black-and-white classic High and Low. Last year, we already had Spike Lee’s reimagining in Highest 2 Lowest, which featured a typically commanding Denzel Washington in the lead role. Believe it or not, Affleck admitted on EW that he has never seen High and Low, a claim that somehow sounds too good to be true or plain ignorant. Keep in mind that this Akira Kurosawa’s movie wasn’t an obscure work whatsoever, making the so-called original screenplay co-written by Affleck along with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray impossible for me to buy this as a coincidence.
And yet, even though Animals unofficially uses the High and Low premise, it’s hard to deny that the first half benefits from Affleck’s taut direction, while the director himself displays fine acting in his lead performance as the conflicted Mark Kimball. He equally brings out the best in his supporting cast, notably Gillian Anderson’s icy yet clinical turn as the fixer steals most of the show here.
Unfortunately, once the turning point is revealed midway, the second half begins to lose its momentum, particularly in how Affleck feels the need to cram in a subplot surrounding Abigail’s marital affair that comes across as filler rather than a dramatic necessity. He could have trimmed the infidelity part and tightened the screw to make his movie leaner.
