Matt Damon is back and brings his star power to AppleTV+’s new film The Instigators but it relies on his co-stars to stop it turning into a rehash of his career greatest hits.
The heist thriller sees him play Rory, a mild mannered engineer who is forced to adopt a life of crime when he falls on hard times and target a corrupt, money laundering mayor.
But after the theft goes wrong, he goes on the run with the more experienced thief Cobby, played by Damon’s friend and frequent co-star Casey Affleck. The pair are joined by Dr Rivera (Rory’s therapist, played by Damon’s Downsizing co-star Hong Chau) as they seek to move on from their failed robbery… or maybe they’ll just try again another time.
It is similar material to Oceans Eleven, another from the 53-year-old’s back catalogue, but where the 2001 film had suave glamour, The Instigators sees Damon deliver bungling incompetence.
There are other hallmark’s from Damon’s career too, such as a car chase involving a fire engine smashing through traffic that looks straight out of the ending to 2016’s Jason Bourne.
Bourne Identity director Doug Liman is also behind the camera again here. He provides a snappy edit to keep The Instigators moving through clichéd scenes of men plotting around tables and casing a joint.
The editing is nothing but stylish and slick but where Bourne leaned towards thrills, a decision is made here to go for the fun over the threatening. And it pays off, but the joke rate needed to keep The Instigators working does come at the expense of any plausibility.
Hong’s chemistry with Damon and Affleck makes the therapy angle the funniest and most original thing about the film that is otherwise weighed down by heist film tropes.
Damon, gentle and slightly conflicted here, is hardly challenged but his role is at least more roundly written than that of his co-star Affleck, which feels a shame.
The Assassination of Jesse James and Manchester by the Sea have proven that Affleck is a gifted character actor. So it is odd, considering he wrote the script with Chuck Maclean, that he gave himself such a one dimensional role here.
And then there is the absolute glut of wasted talent. Alfred Molina, Toby Jones and Ving Rhames can really only do so much considering they are on screen for a combined time of roughly two minutes.
Though, Ron Perlman is terrific in his scenes as a mayor who refuses to leave office after losing an election and struggles to keep track of his own corruption. Remind you of anyone?
The Instigators is a heist comedy that peaks in the therapy room. It is a new direction for Damon that harks back to all his greatest hits. Maybe the only thing it nails intentionally is its depiction of American politics, and that alone is enough to get you onside.
