Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Kyle Chandler, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Sasha Calle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Scott Adkins
Countless thrillers have revolved around their protagonists discovering a large sum of money. We all know how this goes - after some moralising they decide that the money won't be missed, and as it belonged to criminals, they shouldn't feel bad about taking it. The ensuing narrative will see them come to regret their decision as what initially seemed like "a simple plan" proves to be anything but.
With The Rip, writer/director Joe Carnahan delivers a novel twist on this well-worn premise. In his film it's not some everyday joe soap who makes such a discovery but rather a team of cops. With much of the narrative playing out in something close to real time, the tension comes not from what happens after the protagonists decide to keep the money for themselves but from whether or not they will actually make such a decision.
Carnahan got the idea from an anecdote related by his friend, Miami cop Chris Cassiano (the film is dedicated to Cassiano's son Jake, who passed away from Leukemia in 2021). The Rip is the latest pairing of inseparable BFFs Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who respectively play JD and Dane, the leaders of a Miami-Dade County (fans of a certain iconic '80s TV show will be familiar with that jurisdiction) Tactical Narcotics Team. Amid an Internal Affairs investigation into the recent murder of their Captain (Lina Esco), with whom JD was romantically involved, Dane receives a Crimestoppers tip concerning a stash of cash in a house at the end of a cul-de-sac.
Assembling their team - Mike (Steven Yeun), Numa (Teyana Taylor) and Lolo (Catalina Sandino Moreno) - Dane and JD head to the house, the home of young Colombian immigrant Desi (Sasha Calle). They find cash in the attic, but it's far beyond the couple of hundred thousand they were expecting. At a rough guess, JD and Dane estimate there's as much as $20 million stashed away.
The discovery of the cash is akin to the lighting of a fuse that sets off a tension-filled narrative. Dane immediately starts acting oddly, forcing his team to hand over their cellphones and refusing to report the find to his superiors. Convinced that Dane is planning to take the cash for himself, JD goes behind his back and calls for help from DEA Agent Mateo (Kyle Chandler). Meanwhile a mysterious voice calls the house and tells the cops they have 30 minutes to leave before all hell breaks loose.
Carnahan is best known as an action director, but his best films (Narc, The Grey) skew closer to the thriller genre rather than all-out action duds like Smokin' Aces and The A-Team. His movies are at their best when they're about men and women turning on each other in volatile situations as they decide who to put their trust in. In his masterwork The Grey, a crew of oil-men stranded in Alaska have to decide if they can trust Liam Neeson's wolf-sniper to keep them alive. The Rip has a similar dynamic, with Damon's Dane filling the Neeson role of the leader who is expected to do the right thing. The nail-biting tension comes from the suspicion on the part of both the audience and Dane's team that he may be about to cross a line.
Characters switch sides back and forth so often here that nobody is clearly defined as either a good or bad guy, but Carnahan cleverly plays with our preconceptions of certain actors and the sort of roles they're usually associated with. Casting Damon against type as a man who may be willing to betray everything he's stood for is a master stroke. We're so accustomed to seeing Damon cast as straight ahead heroes that there's something especially unnerving about seeing dark thoughts cross his face here. There's one unbearably tense scene that sees Dane left alone with a character who has lost faith in him to do the right thing, as we fear Dane might use this moment to get rid of a human obstacle in the way of his plan. Our familiarity with Affleck and Damon's real life friendship makes their falling out here all the more impactful; it's like watching your parents fight.
For most of its running time, The Rip confines its drama to a couple of claustrophobic locations, which greatly adds to the pot-boiling tension. When it opens up for its climax that tension is instantly deflated, Carnahan wrapping up his thriller with a rather bland action set-piece. The Rip works best when it stays in that cul-de-sac and focusses on a bunch of professionals who have never questioned each other's allegiances until they're suddenly confronted with the brutal truth of how money is the root of all evil.
The Rip is on Netflix from January 17th.
