Outside the Wire (2021)

(Netflix streaming, November 2022) Casting is a tricky, tricky art. Putting some actors in specific parts creates backstories or sympathies seen nowhere in the script. Counter-persona casting can create surprise or discovery. But the trick doesn’t always work, and anchoring Outside the Wire with Anthony Mackie in a lead role leads to some curious disbelief late in the film when we’re supposed to believe in a hero-to-heel turn that doesn’t work because, well, he’s Anthony Mackie! Of course he’s the hero! Granted, my exposure to Mackie’s roles has been very specific… and Outside the Wire has other issues anyway. I like the setup of the film—in a near-future where advanced technologies are common features of the battleground, the United States deploy a drone operator in need of discipline with a hard-edged operative (Mackie) who ends up being an advanced android. A dangerous mission behind the lines shows both the android’s talents and a darker side as well. As a near-future wartime thriller, Outside the Wire has a few noteworthy moments: veteran director Mikael Håfström knows his way around action or suspense sequences, and the weaving of new technologies with depressingly familiar little peacekeeping operations (this one set in Ukraine, eerily enough) is more credible than it should be considering “surprise, android!”  Unfortunately, the other thing that’s surprising about Outside the Wire is how generic it feels—despite some good ideas and decent action sequences, the film struggles to develop much of an identity, or warrant more than the effort to watch it. As a Netflix original film, it seems to suffer from the same homogeneity of presentation as similar movies also available on the platform, and settles for some broad dialogue and dramatic situations. And then there’s the casting thing—Mackie is a terrific actor, but his casting choices have not properly led him to this movie.