Main cast: Mark Wahlberg (Spenser), Winston Duke (Hawk), Alan Arkin (Henry Cimoli), Iliza Shlesinger (Cissy Davis), Bokeem Woodbine (Driscoll), Marc Maron (Wayne Cosgrove), Austin Post (Squeeb), James DuMont (Bentwood), Michael Gaston (Captain Boylan), Colleen Camp (Mara), Hope Olaide Wilson (Letitia), Kip Weeks (Macklin), Rebecca Gibel (Laurie Boylan), and Brandon Scales (Terrence Graham)
Director: Peter Berg
Spenser Confidential is an interesting mix of sorts: it takes the plot of Ace Atkins’s crime novel Wonderland, and then plonk in the main characters from Robert B Parker’s Detective Spenser books – the latter being made into that TV series Spenser: For Hire in the 1980s. Of course, the characters here have gone through some adjustments: Spenser is more middle-class, an ex-con as a matter of fact, while Hawk is a tall, strapping MMA fighter and Henry Cimoli runs a gym that caters to a clientele that is far from the upscale types in the novels. In other movies, the movie is far more working class than the novels or the TV series, and there are no fancy cars here, either.
Spenser went to jail five years ago when he, then a detective, pleaded guilty to beating his captain Boylan into a pulp. This is because he has found evidence that Boylan is dirty, but alas, he doesn’t have a case strong enough to nail Boylan down. Instead, he spends five years in the slammer. Now, he is out, and is taken in by his friend Henry who offers him a room at his place… only to learn that he is expected to share that room with Hawk. Henry has a fondness for mentoring people who are looking for a better second go at life, you see, and he thinks Spenser will make a nice co-mentor to Hawk. Meanwhile, our hero’s biggest concern is avoiding his ex-girlfriend Cissy – a new character that doesn’t appear in the books, if I’m not mistaken – as he isn’t sure how he will approach her yet.
Well, his life gets complicated indeed when Boylan shows up dead on the same day he gets out, and another cop, Terrence Graham, was also found dead. The authorities found drugs in the Graham house, so they conclude that Graham had to be involved in Boylan’s death. Spenser disagrees, as he knows Terrence and is confident that the man would never be dirty. Because our hero always does the right thing no matter what, he decides to help Terrence’s widow Letitia clear her late husband’s name.
Now, I have quite the fun watching this one. It’s not that this movie is particularly memorable. Instead, watching this one is like eating a dish that I have eaten and enjoyed many times before. Every single trope that can be found in any episode of an investigative drama TV show is present here, right down to the, uh, special son of Terrence that exists solely to drive home how the people who murdered and framed his father are such bad, bad people that deserve to be punished. That doesn’t mean that this episode is dire – it just means that this episode isn’t very memorable because there is nothing particularly outstanding or distinctive about it.
The cast is fine, and Mark Wahlberg is definitely aging like fine wine here when it comes to eye candy, so they manage to make things watchable even when the villain is pretty obvious from the get go.
What doesn’t work, on the other hand, is the movie trying to be comedy as well as standard investigative action drama. Some of the comedic scenarios are pretty absurd, but they are played out pretty straight, so there is some kind of disconnect as a result. The humor should have been based around witty conversations, I feel, because the overall tone of the movie is pretty down to earth. The inclusion of more absurdist scenarios for comedy, therefore, stands out awkwardly and feels out of place compared to the rest of the film.
Still, no matter. Spenser Confidential feels far more like a pilot episode of a TV series rather than a movie in its own right – which probably makes it right at home in Netflix, just as intended – but it’s likely good enough for folks who are old enough to enjoy some throwbacks to old school shows like Magnum, P.I. and of course Spenser: For Hire. Sure, Mark Wahlberg is no Tom Selleck, but bless him, he still takes off his shirt because he knows we all still want to take a good look anyway.
