‘Spenser Confidential’: Fresh spin on the wronged-cop formula

Winston Duke (left) and Mark Wahlberg

The story of Netflix’s “Spenser Confidential,” which premieres on Netflix today, isn’t something viewers haven’t seen or heard before. But there’s more to this tale than director Peter Berg’s storytelling proficiency or the glossily realized formula that fuels its viewability.

Most noticeable is the breezy, comedic perspective Berg tells the tale of ex-cop-cum-ex-con Spenser (Mark Wahlberg, playing his character’s trouble-weary conscientiousness with Everyman believability), who can’t resist getting himself out of trouble when he feels the urge to right some wrongs.

Indeed, some habits die hard, especially for someone who has spent the considerable chunk of his life defending the downtrodden and marginalized.

Putting a fresh spin on the film’s wronged-cop narrative is no mean feat. But we were as entertained by its characters’ unforced antics as we were intrigued by the story of Spenser.

The beleaguered protagonist gets in trouble as soon as he finishes serving his sentence for mauling his corrupt commanding officer, Capt. John Boylan (Michael Gaston), after he sees him beating his subservient wife black and blue.

But Spenser’s heightened cynicism has only upped his moral standards. In fact, his five-year stint in the slammer has toughened Spenser’s resolve to go mano-a-mano against entitled bullies in uniform and the appalling impunity from prosecution they enjoy.

Iliza Shlesinger

Post Malone

When Boylan inexplicably ends up dead, followed by the apparent suicide of a former colleague who they say was responsible for Boylan’s gruesome execution-style killing, Spenser realizes that there are a lot of things about the double murder that don’t add up.

He knows he can conveniently look the other way, but there’s something in him that can’t allow the case of another framed cop to fall through the cracks!

Spenser then teams up with his no-nonsense roommate, promising MMA fighter Hawk (Winston Duke), and his landlord Henry Cimoli (Alan Arkin), his former boxing coach, to uncover the sinister conspiracy tied to the confounding deaths of the two Boston police officers.

The film, based on Ace Atkins’ bestselling novel “Wonderland,” is Mark’s fifth collaboration with his director after “Lone Survivor,” “Mile 22,” “Deepwater Horizon” and “Patriots Day”—and it doesn’t disappoint.

With Mark, Winston and Alan in the cast are a bunch of character actors who keeps the conflict compelling and the resulting tension thick—from the hilarious Iliza Schlesinger (as Spenser’s lovely but potty-mouthed girlfriend Cissy) and Bokeem Woodbine (as his ambiguous ex-partner, Driscoll) to the engrossing Post Malone aka Austin Post, in his acting debut (as Squeeb, a fellow inmate and rival with a disquieting presence).

Mark Wahlberg in “Spenser Confidential”

Duke

The loopy humor incorporated into these characters leavens Spenser’s increasingly murky situation. Like, when he isn’t shooting down red flags and winnowing red herrings from actual leads, Spenser competes with Hawk for the attention of his disloyal beagle Pearl, who apparently prefers her yoga sessions with Hawk than her long-forgotten petting moments with Spenser.

Just as uproarious are the wacky sequences that show Spenser and Cissy “rediscovering” each other after the latter’s long absence and picking up where they left off.

“Spenser Confidential’s” attempts at humor aren’t in any way meant to distract from the relevant themes it tackles—from the downside of technology and the dangers of the drug menace, to police corruption and the dregs of society wreaking havoc on the world and its people.

It’s a pretty fascinating mix of themes worthy of viewers’ patronage.

In Spenser’s case, just as he’s set to turn over a new leaf, he realizes that, sometimes, the right thing to do is also the most dangerous!