Broker Movie Review: A crime-drama at play while a trio makes it out on a road-trip to sell off a child to parents they think seem fit, director Hirokazu Kore-Eda helms Broker seems focused on delivering a message of finding love when the craziness around you keeps on increasing. It’s a film that honestly left me confused after watching because, while the element of emotion is there, the movie was never able to land the way the filmmakers intended it to be. M3GAN Movie Review: Blumhouse’s Sci-fi Horror Flick Delivers a Fairly Enjoyable Story about Artificial Intelligence Gone Wrong (Latestly Exclusive).

Focusing on a laundromat owner Ha Sang-hyeon (Song Kang-Ho) and his right-hand man Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won), Broker sees them run an illegal business of stealing babies from the church and then selling them on the adoption black market. When approached by a young mother So-young (Lee Ji-eun) who comes back after abandoning her infant kid and learning about their operation, the three of them decide to go on a road-trip to find the perfect parents for her child.

A Still From Broker (Photo Credits: Zip Cinema)

Broker very much establishes itself as a road-trip film with different genres merging in over here, which is detrimental to its own nature I would say. What it does do best is to be able to land upon character dynamics and emotions. Everyone has a story in tragedy attached to them, and it’s all about finding self-validation for what you’re doing, even though your ethical approach to a certain topic isn’t all really there. The heart of the movie lies within Woo-sung, So-young’s baby and the child they are selling off, and how he changes their ability to perceive love in a certain way, yet the film has major structural issues that stop it from being completely effective in a way.

That concept in itself can make for an impactful viewing, even if Broker runs into more problems than it can cope up with, and I think the character-work overall is one of the more impressive parts of the film that stops it from being a complete mess. Parasite’s Song Kang-ho plays Ha Sang-hyeon with a more lived-in aspect, and you can feel there being a history to why he is doing what he is doing that I won’t spoil over here. In a similar way I believe Gang Dong-won’s Dong-soo makes for a compelling protagonist too. Someone who was abandoned at the orphanage with his mother leaving him a note saying that she will “come back,” he carries a weight and is what pretty much leads him to working on this endeavor.

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For me though the highlight came within Lee Ji-eun’s performance, whose confliction seems intriguing in many ways. Not loved by many and then having this baby under circumstances that saw her take some drastic measures, she is a broken down soul in the world, and it’s what makes so many of the beats of the film land. Should she turn herself in for a crime she committed so her child lives a better life or let Woo-sung be sold off so he can get love from people who will raise him right, Broker presents for some hard-hitting questions.

Unfortunately for Broker though, that’s where the complexity of its plot ends with the film trying to tackle quite a few genres with some shallow characterisation and not give enough time to them. The film sees two detectives Soo-jin (Bae Doona) and Lee (Lee Joo-youn) hot on the trail of our main trio, and while the film does develop on it over the time, the subplot never truly presents a compelling piece of threat that these characters might suffer from.

A Still From Broker (Photo Credits: Zip Cinema)

It's a very safe viewing that doesn’t want its characters to get into any trouble given the constantly unethical nature of their operation. You’re selling kids at the end of the day, there has to be some repercussions to what you’re doing and it’s all conveniently wrapped up in an ending that never delivers upon the grit that was set up. It feels like an easy way out rather than a natural progression that seemed to just betray the main beats of the film.

One can even argue that the ending was realistic, unfortunately for Broker I personally don’t think that’s the case. Not to mention, the number of loose threads left over here that will leave you more baffled than anything. One involving a crime family that gets no conclusion or even a large time devoted to it - I was just wondering what was the point there. The Last of Us Episode 1 Review: Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey’s Post-Apocalyptic HBO Series is Off to an Outstandingly Nerve-Racking Start! (LatestLY Exclusive).

A Still From Broker (Photo Credits: Zip Cinema)

Broker also introduces many character development beats quite immediately in its second half, and none of them really feel earned even though the dialogue revolving around them was written with a lot of poignancy.

Yay!

Main Trio is Entertaining

Emotional Bits

Nay!

Plays It Extremely Safe

Crime-Drama Angle That Never Works

Final Thoughts

Broker is a very weird film because while it does deliver some poignant moments with its story, the film is masked in a layer of convenience that unfortunately brings it down. The journey will be entertaining for some, unfortunately the destination is something that will let you down. Broker releases in theatres on January 20, 2023.

Rating:2.5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 19, 2023 07:07 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).