Silk Road (2021)

(On Cable TV, November 2021) As someone whose experience of the Internet goes back to the very early 1990s, I’ve had the chance to change my mind about it as it evolved. My early quasi-libertarian enthusiasm for the utter freedom of speech (and significant freedom of action) of the Internet’s early days has been tempered by some unpleasant realizations about social dynamics, epistemological tribalism and the need to behave as members of communities. As such, I have an axe and a half to grind about the spectacularly dumb idea of cryptocurrencies, the abuse of technology for illicit pursuits and communities that don’t incorporate at least some kind of moderation. All of which to say — I enjoyed Silk Road’s depiction of the eponymous dark web site’s foundation, but never so much as when it showed how the result blew up in its creator’s face. As it happens, I was at least semi-familiar with the broad outlines of the plot, having read the original article on which the film is based. As it sets up both a technological whiz-kid and a grizzled veteran cop as antagonists, I kept waiting for the unusual twist I remembered from the article. Still, the film doesn’t too badly as an Internet procedural, detailing in bite-sized doses what made Silk Road so special and why it evaded consequences for a while. Nick Robinson is suitably irritating as a young man with lofty misguided ideals who ends up realizing he’s not better than a common hoodlum, while Jason Clarke does get a nice turn as a traditional policeman who keeps up with the latest in online crime. (Meanwhile, Alexandra Shipp is eye-catching as the somewhat ineffectual voice of morality trying to get through to the tech-obsessed protagonist.)  There’s a steady forward rhythm and some darkly amusing sequences on the way to the third act… which is where it all comes down uncontrollably. Perhaps hampered by an overly slavish adhesion to the facts of the case, the climax of Silk Road seems to run out of steam rather than build to a dramatic climax. (It’s made even worse by a framing device that tells you where it’s going and doesn’t add too much to the initial impression.)  There doesn’t seem to be much made of the lead characters’ relationship, and you can almost sense the missed opportunities for a far more aggressive approach in handling the material, not to mention engaging in a confrontation between naïve ideals and real-world consequences. But maybe I’m asking too much of a film built as a run-of-the-mill cyber-thriller: Silk Road is too afraid to go beyond the facts of the case and start asking questions that we need to discuss.