AMBITIOUS ‘SILK ROAD’ FAILS TO REACH ITS DESTINATION
“Silk Road,” a cat-and-mouse tale involving a DEA agent and an internet outlaw, is never a dull affair, but the ambitious film doesn’t quite click: It has too many subplots and too few moments of suspense.
Director-writer Tiller Russell, who recently helmed “Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer,” can’t equal the tension of that eerie, stylish documentary. In “Silk Road,” Russell attempts to create something that’s a cross between “The Social Network,” a tale of internet ambitions run amok, and “Heat,” a thriller that delves intimately into the lives of both the cops and the robbers.
Ross Ulbricht (Nick Robinson) is an underachieving whiz kid who espouses libertarian ideas. He can’t seem to follow through on any project — until he dreams up the Silk Road, an online marketplace on the dark web where customers can secretly purchase products like illicit drugs and guns.
DEA agent Rick Bowden (Jason Clarke), meanwhile, is fresh off a stint in rehab (or worse), and in true Hollywood fashion, faces constant disciplinary problems at work for his outside-the-lines behavior. For good measure, the old-school agent — who can barely sign on to a computer — is assigned to the cybercrimes unit.
Irrespective of the tropes, there are intriguing aspects to the premise, but the problem is that the rise of Silk Road is a complicated story unto itself and often gets short shrift in the screenplay (or in the editing room). We don’t feel the sense of excitement, or dread, or moral murkiness, as the Silk Road enterprise comes into prominence. Ulbricht might as well be working on a new fitness app or a cat video that’s trending on Twitter.
The back-and-forth cuts between the rogue agent and internet kingpin are sometimes jarring. It’s disarming when we discover, through dialogue, that Silk Road is a multimillion-dollar enterprise; indeed, major moments in Ulbricht’s life seem to be happening off-screen. When the movie explores the domestic lives of Ulbricht and Bowden, it diffuses the tension, instead of adding substantial layers to the characters.
Still, “Silk Road” remains watchable because both Robinson and Clarke are interesting screen presences. And there’s some humor, which consistently lands better than the thrills. It’s a hoot, for example, to watch Clarke’s agent joining with neighborhood “assistant” Rayford (Darrell Britt-Gibson) to get a handle on the internet underworld.
It’s also easy to understand why Russell would cast Robinson, who is steadily becoming one of the best young actors of his generation. Even though Ulbricht’s character is not fleshed out completely, Robinson captures the essence of this disaffected dork, a smart misfit who doesn’t fully grasp the ramifications of what he’s doing.
Throughout “Silk Road,” we await the ultimate confrontation between two obsessives — a nerdy kingpin and a desperate agent — but it never really materializes. In the final shot, we see them in the same place, yet the only thing that transpires is the credit roll.