PROOF CAN BE A POWERFUL WEAPON.
Former NYC cop turned private eye Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) is hired by Mayor Nicholas Hofstetler (Russell Crowe) to spy on his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones); is she being unfaithful? As you might guess, there’s a lot more beneath the surface in the director’s first big picture without his brother Albert. Wahlberg and Crowe are solid as the investigator and the slick, soft-spoken but very authoritative mayor, but Zeta-Jones’s part is underwritten and the intricate political game where Taggart learns that he’s merely a pawn is contrived and lacks real tension.
2013-U.S. 109 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Allen Hughes. Cast: Mark Wahlberg (Billy Taggart), Russell Crowe (Nicholas Hostetler), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Cathleen Hostetler), Jeffrey Wright, Barry Pepper, Kyle Chandler… Griffin Dunne.
Trivia: Michael Fassbender was allegedly considered for the lead role.
