‘Motor City’ Has a Novel Premise, But Follows a Familiar Route

Silent film revs back to life with the new picture “Motor City.” Featuring just a few audible lines of dialogue — apparently, only five — the movie instead relies on acting, action, and music to tell its story set in 1970s Detroit. Music, in particular, proves vital to its evocative scene-setting and entertainment value, with both a fairly standard dramatic score and various pop rock hits from the era, like “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues, deployed on the soundtrack. While not entirely successful, the film’s wordless narrative does induce a kind of heightened immersion at times, compelling viewers to give up on lipreading and instead focus on mood and emotion. Director Potsy Ponciroli’s experiment in dialogue-free storytelling is best when it allows its actors to use their expressive gifts beyond speaking. Actor Alan Ritchson, from TV’s “Reacher,” portrays the wronged, all-American hero well enough, though his particular skills are better leveraged in the more action-oriented third act. During quieter scenes in which even music is scarce or completely absent, Shailene Woodley, as the love interest, and Ben Foster, as the bad guy, shine.Essentially a crime melodrama and tale of revenge, the film’s plot mirrors those we’ve seen in countless other feature films or TV movies and series, essentially rendering dialogue redundant. Working man John Miller (Mr. Ritchson) is framed for drug trafficking by a corrupt detective (Pablo Schreiber) working for a local kingpin (Mr. Foster) after he steals the latter’s girlfriend (Ms. Woodley). Sent to prison for 25 years, John finds out while in the clink that his once-bride-to-be has married her former partner. Around the same time, another detective (Ben McKenzie) investigates the drug case and later informs Ms. Woodley’s character how her husband falsely incriminated her former lover. Inevitably, the narrative goes into full revenge mode.As the standard plot proceeds, one is almost grateful for the lack of lines since it’s likely that a dialogue-based script would have included platitudes and melodramatic banalities. While one might have wished that the director had taken his experiment even further by including a few clarifying intertitles, like in pre-sound sync films, or text overlays, as found in many a social media video, it’s refreshing to watch purely visual storytelling, with the occasional grunt and sound effect. Of course the featured songs contain lyrics, though Mr. Ponciroli generally avoids directly tying the meaning of the music to the action onscreen. The exceptions to this rule mostly end up too on-the-nose or clunky, such as when Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” is used during John’s arrest as his girlfriend watches.Some of the best pairings of song and scene occur when the music acts as a counterpoint or adds irony to the proceedings, such as when the aforementioned Moody Blues ballad plays during a prison break, or when the breezy, ELO-sounding “Driver’s Seat,” by the obscure band Sniff ‘n’ The Tears, is set to a montage of drug smuggling via painting canvases (this is a real thing). A particularly effective, if distressing, scene sees the filmmakers locate the frantic, fraught heart of the holiday classic “Ring Christmas Bells,” by the Ray Conniff Singers, by tying it to an incident of forced drug abuse. Another Christmas scene includes a cameo by Jack White, formerly of The White Stripes, tinkling the ivories, with the Detroit-born musician also serving as the movie’s music director and unofficial expert on the city, in fact the film was shot in New Jersey.One knockout quiet scene finds Ms. Woodley’s and Mr. Foster’s characters reconnecting in a diner, with the actors’ range of facial expressions and body language bespeaking not only of their troubled history together but hinting at the joys of silent flirting. In other scenes, Ms. Woodley evokes the glamor and bitterness of Sharon Stone in Martin Scorsese’s “Casino,” leading one to wish the character played a more significant role beyond being the symbolic cause of the enmity between its two main male characters. Always an interesting actor, Mr. Foster appears to savor the chance to flex his other acting muscles beyond speech. In scene after scene, the actor smirks and gesticulates while suggesting the depth of the man behind the sleazy charm. Some might consider his performance a bit hammy, yet he seems to understand that “silent film” requires a slightly amplified type of acting. The same cannot be said of Mr. Ritchson’s performance, though he certainly looks and behaves like a former military man. It’s during the action scenes that the beefy actor excels, particularly one brutal, bloody fight sequence staged in an elevator. The violent third act, in which John’s military buddies join his mission of revenge, sees the film conversely lose some of its power, particularly as popular songs are dropped for the more prominent presence of the conventional musical score. Occasionally, too, the editing and staging of the action set pieces come across as sloppy. Throughout the film, though, the period production design and costuming as well as the enveloping lighting are consummate, furthering the feeling of visual absorption and emotional investment. While the film’s title might suggest otherwise, the movie doesn’t explore Detroit’s auto industry history, though vintage vehicles do figure throughout and during the climatic action sequence. After this set piece, the narrative then segues to an epilogue years later, complete with awkward old-age makeup. Still, ending his film with two lines of dialogue, Mr. Ponciroli cleverly concludes his stylish take on silent film. Here’s hoping we see more like it, only with more original stories.

‘Motor City’ Has a Novel Premise, But Follows a Familiar Route

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