Emily Blunt cuts maternity leave for ‘Sicario’

Though Blunt believably embodies a steely laywoman, the British actress said she was drawn into the film by what happens when Kate removes her bulletproof vest.

A violent skirmish at the border crossing (a masterfully tense sequence) suggests to the by-the-book Kate that these guys don’t really concern themselves with the book at all.

Denis Villeneuve is collaborating with cinematographer Roger Deakins. Because really, this is a film about America, and how the foreign policies of the Western world reflect a notion that we’re above the law.

As things settle down by comparison, Sicario doesn’t just become a War on Drugs parable, but nearly resembles one for the War on Terrorism as well.

This team’s mandate is to, as Matt puts it, “dramatically overreact”. “It was something that we’ve been discussing for quite a while, that there was more to explore with this character because there was so much left unsaid about Alejandro and his journey and what makes that man”. “It would certainly be easy to play a drinking game every time Matt promises to ‘make noise”, as with a lot of W’s catchphrases over the years. Kids will want to miss this one but adults will enjoy it and only they can appreciate what it is trying to say here.

“So the audience won’t see a movie star”. However, he did reveal that it will discuss global issues around Alejandro’s character. Villeneuve also directed the taut-thriller Prisoners with Hugh Jackman and is preparing to helm the upcoming Blade Runner sequel. But the director seems to have learned his lessons, as Sicario further and more completely exploits the potential he showed as a suspenseful director, and a morally gray storyteller. Even as the discovery at the Arizona home takes a more horrifying turn, something about Kate’s response draws the attention of the higher-ups.

Kate never becomes the woman of action we might expect, but that’s part of the point; “Sicario” is about her inability to elicit lawful change in a situation where law and order are disregarded, and not only by the cartel. Still, Villeneuve and Deakins’ taut tableau is as haunting as its subject matter, like the dark spawn of No Country for Old Men and Zero Dark Thirty. And then there’s Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), a mysterious fellow “consultant”. Even a final scene that has an obviously bleak way to view it can also be seen as something strangely uplifting, if only by comparison to the alternative. Military? -nor is she keen on the flippant stance they take toward things like Federal Bureau of Investigation protocol. The drug theme has been a recurring one in Del Toro’s work.

“That’s how Emily and I got to be such close friends”, Del Toro jokes, before he and Blunt start giving each other ice-cold stares. This is something that makes or breaks what a filmmaker does with his life. “It wasn’t motivated by the success on six movie screens”. It’s not like you won’t get a passionate reaction out of the sleepy-eyed actor over a variety of different topics – say, representations of Mexico in Hollywood moviemaking, or why a minimalistic approach to acting is often more effective, or his skill in giving “Wet Willies” (more on that in a bit).