STING OPERATION GOES SIDEWAYS

DIRECTOR UNIFIES MACHINATIONS OF POLICE STING CORRUPTION

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

A drug addict tries the distraction of hard work to stay clean and sober, but when his exit plan falls apart the lure of the drug trade ensnares him.

Director Daniel Roby begins with four narratives and then gradually intertwines them to illustrate the cause and effect of a destiny that chooses his protagonist.

Antoine Olivier Pion plays biopic character Daniel Leger. Leger leaves behind his old triggers in Quebec for work and the outdoor lifestyle on the west coast of British Columbia.

Leger tries to play life on the straight and narrow but that path leads to the old ways of drug use and money troubles.

Jim Gaffigan plays the protagonist in the second narrative about chartered boat captain Glen Picker. Picker gives Leger a job on his boat taking clients out on fishing trips. But Picker’s recreational drug use leads to something much bigger.

A third narrative is run by Stephen McHattie playing Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Frank Cooper. Cooper and his undercover narcotics unit set up a sting operation.

Josh Hartnett stars in the fourth narrative about Globe and Mail investigative journalist Victor Malarek. Hartnett shows the steely character of the biopic journalist focusing his career on stories related to the international drug trade.

Roby shows how the politics inside the newsroom escalates when Malarek’s ongoing investigations result in a negative return for the newspaper. Malarek must produce one story a week to earn his paycheck.

So to produce news copy in a hurry, the investigate journalist must follow the trail of the police operation all the way to Thailand in the hopes of uncovering the truth about the alleged drug transaction.

Malarek uncovers that the RCMP’s claims of having successfully completed a major operation on a drug lord are false. And that, Leger may have been duped into the role of a drug trafficker by a police narcotics unit desperate to substantiate the department’s budget to the minions at headquarters.

Hartnett develops the quirky journalist character with a sense of an ongoing government injustice compelling the righteousness of investigating the story. The darker sides of the story place Malarek’s family life in jeopardy, with his wife, played by Amanda Crew, and their new born child having to flee their family home.

Hartnett has played slightly different variations of the character, each time playing important characters sharing the narrative with the lead protagonist. In Black Hawk Down (2001) Hartnett is part of an ensemble cast that includes Ewan McGregor, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs and Sam Shepard playing United States Army Rangers sent to intervene in the civil strife between War Lords in Somalia.

Harnett was also cast as a United States airforce pilot in Pearl Harbour (2001) co-starring Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Garner.

Harnett’s character works partly behind the scenes again to support Leger’s quest for the truth about the drug trafficking charges, while waiting trial in a Thai prison.

Pion shows how Leger struggles with the various players in the drug trade as much as the addiction and all the criminal trappings that go along with drug use. 

Target Number One was released as Most Wanted in the United States.

Target Number One is currently streaming in Canada as the Apple TV movie of the week.