Empire

Directed by Franc. Reyes, Empire follows successful heroin dealer Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) as he decides to leave his illicit business and invest his money with a slick investment banker (Peter Sarsgaard’s Jack Wimmer). Filmmaker Reyes, working from his own screenplay, delivers a slick yet mostly generic thriller that boasts little in the way of innovative, surprising attributes, and yet, for a while, Empire manages to come off as a briskly-paced endeavor that benefits quite substantially from its behind-the-scenes peek into New York City’s drug landscape and a commanding turn by Leguizamo as the relatively sympathetic protagonist – with, in terms of the latter, the actor’s stirring efforts matched by Sarsgaard’s progressively (and entertainingly) smarmy work here. It’s clear, then, that Empire‘s downfall is due mostly to Reyes’ excessively lackadaisical approach to his less-than-fresh screenplay, as the deliberate atmosphere accomplishes little other than highlighting the mostly predominant familiarity of the narrative and its by-the-numbers outcome (ie why does it take so long for the film to get to where we know it’s going?) – which secures the picture’s place as a periodically passable yet mostly tedious drama that does, at least, feature a handful of compelling sequences and some better-than-average acting.

** out of ****