Themes: Out For Revenge, Cons and Scams, Drug Trade
Main Cast: John Leguizamo, Peter Sarsgaard, Denise Richards, Vincent Laresca, Delilah Cotto
Release Year: 2002
Run Time: 85 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A man who has made good in an illegal business discovers going straight is a more complicated matter than he imagined in this urban drama. Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo) is a drug dealer who has made a small fortune selling a heroin-based drug cocktail he's concocted called "Empire." Victor doesn't see himself as a dope pusher; instead, he considers himself an entrepreneur and a businessman who is simply making the most of the economic opportunities presented to him in the ghetto. Through his girlfriend Carmen (Delilah Cotto), Victor makes the acquaintance of Jack Wimmer (Peter Sarsgaard), an upscale investment banker who admires Victor's business savvy and street smarts. Victor is interested in getting out of drug dealing and into a legitimate business, and when Jack offers Victor the chance to buy into a new business, Victor eagerly accepts and makes a good profit in the deal. After this, Victor is all the more enthusiastic when Jack gives him the opportunity to invest in a much bigger project; the price, however, is more than Victor can afford, and he has to borrow from another high-stakes drug dealer, La Columbiana (Isabella Rossellini) in order to make the nut. It isn't long before Victor learns La Columbiana is not a good person to be in debt to -- and that Jack may not be all he imagined him to be. Empire marked the directorial debut of dancer and choreographer Franc Reyes; the supporting cast includes Denise Richards, Sonia Braga, Ruben Blades, and rapper Fat Joe. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Overreaching from its title onward, Empire has a lot more ambition than ability to deliver on it. The film borrows liberally, though not skillfully, from Martin Scorsese's template for crime drama, and it owes a specific debt to Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way, with John Leguizamo substituting for Al Pacino as the Latino gangster trying to get out. To be fair, Empire does flirt with big ideas, and has real desire to give the mob movie a 21st century urban makeover. Its distinct chapters give it that epic quality, as the plot starts with the intense cauldron of gangland politics, then pulls off a radical shift in tone to the gangster's movements within yuppie society. Empire conjures both ends of Leguizamo's criminal spectrum with credibility, from legit street characters to a smartly seductive white savior (Peter Sarsgaard) dangling the carrot Leguizamo can't resist. The film even has the odd good sense to cast Isabella Rossellini as a matronly drug lord with acid in her veins -- one of several inspired supporting performances. It's Leguizamo, himself usually a supporting actor, who weakens under the weight of the movie, much as he did trying to carry Spike Lee's sprawling Summer of Sam. But he can't be blamed for the movie's hasty third-act collapse, which shrinks director Franc Reyes' deliberate build-up into a scant, single-scene payoff. The climactic clash between the financial world and the underworld -- a focal point of the film's ad campaign -- gets swept under the rug, and a stillborn epic whimpers to a finish at a miniscule 85 minutes. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Frank White III - Art Director, Franc. Reyes - Director, Peter C. Frank - Editor, John Leguizamo - Executive Producer, Steven Beer - Executive Producer, Robert B. Campbell - Executive Producer, Jill Footlick - Executive Producer, Evan Lamberg - Executive Producer, Rubén Blades - Composer (Music Score), Ted Glass - Production Designer, Kramer Morgenthau - Cinematographer, Michael Mailer - Producer, Daniel Bigel - Producer, Franc. Reyes - Screenwriter
Victor Rosa (Leguizamo) is a drug dealer in New York who sells a specific brand of heroin called "Empire". His area, or "turf", is located in the South Bronx, where his other rivals all maintain an uneasy truce. They generally respect each other's borders and sanctity. All of this is maintained because it just so happens that they all purchase their drugs from the same supplier, the drug lord La Colombiana. Victor is invited to a chic white collar party by his girlfriend Carmen (Cotto). The party is being thrown by her friend Trish's (Richards) boyfriend Jack (Sarsgaard), an investment banker. Vic befriends Jack as he looks up to him and his lifestyle. With a baby on the way Vic decides he wants to go straight, an opportunity Jack provides. Vic begins to invest money with Jack, receiving significant returns (200%). As Vic draws closer to Jack he finds himself drifting away from what he once was, and his former friends and family. He even moves into a fabulous loft in Soho, courtesy of Jack. Meanwhile Carmen and his friends all criticize him for acting like something he is not, and forgetting where he came from, and them.
The climax arises when Jack offers Vic an investment opportunity for over 300% return, there's only one catch, the minimum buy-in is 4.5 Million. Vic is 1.5 short. He approaches La Colombiana with the offer, in which she agrees to lend Vic the money he needs but she wants 500% return and for him to stop a feud between his best friend Jimmy who now runs his drug business, and a rival dealer. However, the feud escalates and Jimmy kills the rival. He in turn is killed by La Colombiana. Vic receives his money and gives it to Jack. It turns out that Jack is a con artist and disappears the next day. Victor is lost but manages to track Jack down via a phone number he had called from earlier in Miami. Victor tries to get his money back, and kills Jack and Trish when he is unable to. He escapes with Carmen and her family to Puerto Rico and opens a bar on the south side of the island with what little money he has left. At the end of the movie, Vic receives a phone call, his son is being born at the hospital. Just when he is getting in his car to go to the hospital, he is shot dead; La Colombiana had caught up with him for not fulfilling his end of their agreement.
