Wasp Network has been directed by Olivier Assayas. The usually perceptive filmmaker’s spy drama film fails to thrill despite its high-stakes, true-life story.
Wasp Network premiered at Venice last year. The film goes more for more length than character development or plot concentration. It suffers without letting its extravagantly talented cast bring more to the screen.
1. Quick Review
The film has been adapted by Assayas from Fernando Morais’ The Last Soldiers of the Cold War. Wasp Network is essentially an account of a group of spies who infiltrated various Cuban-American groups in the ’90s.
Wasp Network eventually expands to include multiple double agents, a coordinator, and the Cuban hotel bombings from 1997. Assayas has been interested in the intersection of political and personal.
He presents stories of men and women so committed to a cause that it defines their lives and those who love them. The director leans heavily on a pair of tonally incompatible montages with expository voiceovers for the progression of the plot.
2. Is it worth watching?
The further that Assayas gets away from his characters, the more numbing it becomes to watch. The film works when it allows performers the space to build characters.
Even then, they get lost in the hurried narrative of the plot. Filmmaking and storytelling take a backseat. There is so much history packed into the film that it likely would have been better as a mini-series series instead.
The plot overwhelms the people carrying it with the question of what the mission really is. Assayas shies away from the passions and politics of the issue to focus on the movements of an ensemble. The resulting narrative is dense, and ultimately rather bland. Especially considering the fight over the soul of a country.
Wasp Network is a two-hour film that sets its hook at the 90-minute mark. It almost completely relies on its considerable visual and technical dexterity to keep us from tuning out. By the time the story finally comes into focus, the meaning of scenes from an hour earlier begin to make sense. The rewards are understandably underwhelming.
I. Plot
The storyline is, at best, convoluted. Rene Gonzalez (played by Edgar Ramirez) hops in a plane and flies from Havana to Miami, leaving behind everything he has. He leaves behind his wife, Olga (played by Penelope Cruz), to raise their daughter on her own.
Rene begins working for Jose Basulto (played by Leonardo Sbaraglia). He happens to be a pro-democracy, anti-communist “humanitarian militant” and generally undermines Fidel Castro’s crumbling regime.
Back in Cuba, another pilot, Juan Pablo Roque (played by Wagner Moura), swims to Guantanamo Bay. When he tells a U.S. military honcho he’s defecting; he’s rewarded with a flight to Miami. He joins Basulto’s crusade and marries Ana (Ana de Armas) to settle in.
He, along with Rene, becomes an FBI informant for more than just the money. The year is 1990. Four years earlier, Gerardo Hernandez (Gael Garcia Bernal) meets with Cuban military brass.
He leads the Wasp Network, a group of spies aiming to infiltrate anti-communist networks like Basulto’s. A montage pieces together the deeds of the Wasp Network, which thwarted numerous terrorist efforts to undermine Cuba’s economy and regime — some of them likely backed by the CIA. Confused? Overwhelmed? Welcome to the club.
II. Music & Visuals
The music director of this film is Eduardo Cruz. He is a Spanish electronic musician and film score composer.
The soundtrack includes Instrumental Lament by Jordi Savaal, The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness by The Feelies, Un Lindo Sueno Del Pasado by Emilio Vega, Salsa De Santiago by Boris Giraud, and You’re No Good by Jean-Francaois Berger.
There are visual choices on Assayas’ part and little details within the characters’ portrayals that can’t be ignored. Cruz’s work has a quiet determination, and Ramirez reminds one how charismatic he can be when given an actual character.
Visually, the appeal of the Wasp Network is undeniable. The film has been elegantly shot in warm, colorful, and open spaces. Coupled with good looking actors, the intrigue could have used some of that heat.
3. Final Thoughts
While I happen to be a fan of de Armas, I wouldn’t expect much from her in this film. The role she is given is sinfully underwritten, although she makes the best of her few scenes.
Cruz, however, is a ray of light pushing through an overcast smudge of a movie. She is a force that emphatically captures the clash of family and patriotic fervor within her character. Cruz plays out to easily be the film’s strongest emotional appeal.
With an intensely muddling plotline, the film is one that will frustrate those with little patience for the script’s casual attitude. Wasp Network borrows a lot of its themes and methods from the director’s terrorist biopic Carlos.
Everything from period detail to the mix of pop tracks that accompany the weirdly placed fast-forward montage sequences make it seem ghastly.
Wasp Network – ideally, it shouldn’t exist.
4. Grade
Story: C-
Cinematography/Animation: B
Acting: C
Music: B+
Direction: C-
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