When a domestic mission goes quite spectacularly, if quite innovatively, wrong the enthusiastic but somewhat naive FBI agent "Kate" (Emily Blunt) is offered a chance to sign up for a team that's going to avenge things. It's to be run by "Graver" (Josh Brolin) and feature the strong, silent and enigmatic type that is "Alejandro" (Benicio Del Toro). She doesn't much like the look of him, indeed she finds the whole operation a bit dodgy but off to El Paso they go to try to stop the war against the increasingly well armed and successful drug cartels. Their objective is not to tinker with the mechanics of these operations, but to identify the kingpins and remove them from the board. What she (and we) soon realise is that this is one of those missions far more clandestine than it is lawful. Plenty of rules are stretched, ignored or just downright broken as their team must fight with the weapons of the enemy if they are to have any chance of tracking down their primary target - "Manuel Díaz" (Bernardo Saracino). What she also comes to realise quite quickly is that she is not fully briefed, indeed she is being drip fed information in a fashion that frequently drives her to want to throw in the towel. She prevails, though, and as the plot unravels we are all exposed to a ruthless, efficient and internecine network that is easily a match for it's theoretically better armed and informed pursuers. It's also at this stage that we appreciate that "Alejandro" does have his own agenda, and woe betides anyone who gets between him and his self-appointed task. Though Brolin is really neither here nor there here, this features a strong effort from Blunt as "Kate" comes to terms with some fairly profound challenges to her morals and principles. Del Toro doesn't have too much to say, but again he delivers well in his usual less-is-more style. Little dialogue just a menacing style of characterisation that you just know is only on her side until, well, he might not be. It hits the ground running and takes care to establish characters that are plausible, if not especially likeable, whilst showing us what might be as true an assessment of the war for control of the billion dollar narcotics industry as we'll have seen on a big screen.
