After working together on a trio of well-received docudrama-thrillers, director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg have shifted into trying to launch their own franchise. Their first attempt, Mile 22, didn't pan out and their second effort, Spenser Confidential, doesn't inspire much confidence either. Very loosely based on Ace Atkins' novel Wonderland (a continuation of the Spenser mystery/detective books by the late Robert B. Parker), the film is the latest addition to Wahlberg's oeuvre of genre movies about Boston, but fails to capture the heart and spirit of the city the way his best previous work has. Spenser Confidential has the makings of an amusingly pulpy blend of action, comedy, and noir, yet its middling execution drags the whole thing down.
Wahlberg stars in Spenser Confidential as the eponymous Spenser, an ex-cop who's fresh off a five year stint in prison for assaulting his superior officer Boylan (Michael Gaston) for reasons he refuses to fully explain. Now, all he really wants to do is earn his license to become a delivery truck driver and move to Arizona with his dog Pearl, far away from his ex-girlfriend Cissy (Iliza Schlesinger) and old home in Boston. But when a pair of police officers turns up dead, Spenser finds himself unable to turn a blind eye to what he suspects is a coverup. With the aid of his old boxing trainer Henry (Alan Arkin) and off-beat roommate Hawk (Winston Duke), Spenser gets back to doing what he does best: solving crimes, cracking skulls, and getting beat up a whole lot along the way.
A buddy movie at its core, Spenser Confidential tries to marry a convoluted detective narrative with dark humor and brutal violence in the vein of a Shane Black film, but lacks the sharp wit and deft storytelling hand to maintain that delicate balance of tone and plot. What you end up with is a movie full of jarring shifts from scenes depicting horrific murders and the devastating emotional fallout to broadly comedic moments featuring Spenser and the various oddballs that populate his world. Speaking of which: Spenser Confidential is full of Boston movie stereotypes (blatantly corrupt cops, loud and angry women), right down to its actual setting - a collection of bars, nail salons, dog racing parks, and other seedy locations - yet it struggles to create a truly distinct sense of time and place. Wahlberg and Berg shot the film on location and clearly know their way around the city (even shooting in the neighborhood where a teenaged Wahlberg grew up), though without a captivating story to anchor it, Boston comes across as more of a backdrop than the character it's meant to be.
Indeed, the actual mystery at the heart of Spenser Confidential is pretty generic; chances are, you will realize who the mastermind behind this conspiracy is well before the movie reveals its hand - if not from the instant they appear onscreen. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if the journey to getting there was fun, and there are scenes where the movie starts to come alive as an enjoyable buddy romp. Duke, specifically, is quite good as Hawk, an aspiring MMA fighter whose intimidating stature is offset perfectly by his quirky behavior and intelligence. One just wishes he had a better straight-man to play off of than Spenser, a character who's much closer to the standard principled tough guy Wahlberg has played many times over than the cultured, wise-cracking, PI created by Parker. Meanwhile, Schlesinger makes the most of her screen time as Spenser's foul-mouthed ex, even if Spenser Confidential can't think of much to do with her other than play her as a one-note joke.
The adapted script credited to newcomer Sean O'Keefe and Oscar-winner Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential, Mystic River) does its best to provide a compelling introduction to all these characters plus Henry (Arkin, always a pleasure, even in a forgettable role like this), but in the end Spenser Confidential makes for just as bland an origin story as it does a mystery yarn. It doesn't help the movie can feel as choppily edited as Berg's docudrama work, but without the guerrilla filmmaking style that justifies the cobbled structure (Mile 22 had the same problem). To their credit, Berg and his trusted cinematographer Tobias A. Schliessler apply a steadier hand when it comes to covering the action sequences, especially Spenser's frequent fist-fights. The whole movie still has a budgeted look to it, but - for better or worse - nothing most people haven't come to expect from Netflix Originals by this point.
Add it all together and it becomes clear why Spenser Confidential went straight to Netflix instead of releasing in theaters like Berg and Wahlberg's previous four movies; it's the type of mediocre genre film (nothing aggressively bad, but nothing especially good either) that viewers can casually watch at home to pass the time without feeling like they're getting ripped off, the way they might've had they paid a full ticket price to see it. Some people might even enjoy the supporting characters like Hawk and Cissy - or watching Spenser comically get his butt handed to him time and time again - enough to want to see them back in a (hopefully, more engaging) sequel. Failing that, Spenser Confidential will probably be remembered as strike two for Berg and Wahlberg in their continuing odyssey to give the latter a new IP to headline.
Spenser Confidential is now streaming on Netflix. It is 111 minutes long and is rated R for violence, language throughout and sexual content.
