most wanted movie review

Most Wanted

"Most Wanted," a thriller set at the intersection of journalism, police work and drug dealing, isn't as generic as its title. But its characters and story have just as much trouble making a strong impression. This would be frustrating under any circumstance, but it's particularly vexing here, because you can tell that everyone involved gave their all on behalf of what seemed like important work, made in a format that rarely gets financed anymore, let alone released to theaters. (Too bad most theaters were closed due to pandemic when the movie was initially released; its thoughtful sound design and handheld widescreen cinematography deserve an optimum viewing experience.)

Written and directed by Daniel Roby ("White Skin," TV's "Versailles"), set in 1989, and shot in Canada and Thailand, "Most Wanted" is a socially conscious suspense picture with a big feel that belies its low budget. The movie's look, sound, and rhythm as well as the "two strong characters, two separate but intersecting stories" format, are so clearly informed by the career of Michael Mann that when Roby drops one of that filmmaker's most distinctive music cues ("In the Air Tonight") into a scene with the same situation (drug dealing on a boat), it's as embarrassing as catching someone trying on another person's too-large clothes. 

Hartnett plays Victor Malerek, a handsome, long-haired, thick-mustached investigative reporter for newspapers and TV. His reputation for righteous, confrontational journalism is matched by his infamy as a conceited agent of chaos—a human bulldozer who neglects family and coworkers unless he needs to ask favors or beg forgiveness. Our introduction to Victor finds him in a TV studio, grilling an evasive subject. Then his beeper goes off, interrupting the interview, giving the subject a pretext to storm out, and setting Victor on a high speed drive to meet the person who beeped him: his wife Anna ( Amanda Crew ), who gave birth without him. Between failing to turn off his beeper and deciding to do a marquee interview while his wife was in labor, we immediately get that Victor is a standard-issue antiheroic crusader who hopes breaking a great story will prove that he's worth the trouble that follows him everywhere.

Unfortunately for the movie, we've seen this sort of man many, many times. And despite having established Victor's personality in the second scene and letting it stand as shorthand for the kind of guy he is, "Most Wanted" keeps returning to Victor's marital and professional problems even though there's a vastly more compelling story happening in the same timeline:  Antoine-Olivier Pilon (Léger), a low-level criminal and addict, becomes ensnared in an ethically bankrupt and illegal government scheme. The details are easy to find if you Google production stories about "Most Wanted," and they're intriguing enough that I wouldn't want to spoil them here. Let's just say that it all amounts to cops of various sorts trying to entrap people whose guilt is known but hard to prove, then letting the human instrument of their schemes (Antoine) take the fall when the plan fails.

Léger is so strong in the film's secondary lead role that he nearly rescues parts of "Most Wanted." He's an up-and-coming international star whose work in such films as " Mommy " and "1:54" marks him an exciting, soulful character actor in a leading man's body. Like young  Robert De Niro , Denzel Washington ,  Edward Norton , or Tom Hardy , he radiates such intense energy and makes such surprising choices in the moment that I could see him inspiring a fan club, if he doesn't already have one. There's so much happening in his face and body language, even when the character is hiding important information from others, that it partly compensates for the tediousness of the script, which seems comprised mainly of exposition disguised as banter, deployed to fill in the knowledge gaps of people who missed a couple of scenes because they were scrolling their phones. 

Jim Gaffigan is almost as effective as a sleazy, slobbish, violent drug dealer/addict who hastens Antoine's downfall. Though previously known as a sitcom actor and standup comic, Gaffigan has increasingly distinguished himself as a character actor whose roles seem chosen to neutralize typecasting. He doesn't pull off the explosive rage required to put the fear of God in viewers—something about his performance makes the character's threat level come across as a 4 when it needed to be a 10—but in every other way, this is a striking performance, particularly when he shifts into a smarter-than-thou, psychologically invasive mode that the late Philip Seymour Hoffman used to specialize in.

Hartnett, though, is a disaster. His unconvincing performance amplifies many of the movie's worst tendencies. Exuding "maverick hero on the edge," it's a bundle of predictable and shallow choices, from the insinuating smirk whenever Victor grills people to the way he stalks from point A to point B, indicating  unstoppability for viewers who might've missed it. 

Focusing on the young criminal and treating Victor as a supporting character and exposition provider might have lessened at least some of the movie's problems. But Hartnett, who could be a soulful, naturalistic blank slate in early roles, makes things worse by consistently failing to dominate scenes where you're supposed to believe Victor is getting what he wants by being louder, more charismatic, and nobler than anyone standing in his way.

A mediocre film that's unaware of the poor choices it's making is much harder to watch than a bad film that relishes its stupidity and poor taste. At least the second kind of film can be fun.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Josh Hartnett as Victor Malarek
• Stephen McHattie as Frank Cooper
• Jim Gaffigan as Picker
• J. C. MacKenzie as Arthur
• Antoine-Olivier Pilon as Daniel Léger
• Don McKellar as Norm
• Daniel Roby

Cinematographer

• Ronald Plante
• Yvann Thibaudeau

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Most Wanted

In 1989, a Canadian journalist investigates the circumstances surrounding the suspicious arrest of a heroin addict imprisoned in a Thai jail. In 1989, a Canadian journalist investigates the circumstances surrounding the suspicious arrest of a heroin addict imprisoned in a Thai jail. In 1989, a Canadian journalist investigates the circumstances surrounding the suspicious arrest of a heroin addict imprisoned in a Thai jail.

• Daniel Roby
• Antoine Olivier Pilon
• Josh Hartnett
• Stephen McHattie
• 68 User reviews
• 34 Critic reviews
• 62 Metascore
• 12 nominations

Top cast 68

• Daniel Léger

• Victor Malarek

• Sergeant Frank Cooper

• Glen Picker

• Anna Malarek

• James Boulder

• Denis Fountain

• (as JC Mackenzie)

• Robert McDonald

• Randy Brown
• (as Pierre LeBlanc)
• John Woodbridge
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Based on Victor Malarek 's story of Alain Olivier's wrongful imprisonment in Bangkok.
• Goofs Air Canada A330-300 airplane is seen flying over Bangkok. The silver-blue livery wasn't introduced until 2004. Air Canada didn't acquire Airbus A330-300 until 1999. Otherwise, the airplane should be either Boeing 747-100/747-200 or 767-200/767-300ER with thick red cheat lines along fuselage and white maple leaf imposed on red tail.

Daniel Léger : How the hell are you gonna get ten kilos into the country? 'Cause my asshole doesn't stretch that much.

• Soundtracks Golden Sticks and Casinos Written by Jocelyn Tellier (as J. Tellier) Performed by Jocelyn Tellier

User reviews 68

Interesting....

• Thanos_Alfie
• Aug 4, 2020
• How long is Most Wanted? Powered by Alexa
• July 24, 2020 (United States)
• Official site
• Mục Tiêu Số Một
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Caramel Films
• Goldrush Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• Runtime 2 hours 5 minutes

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Most Wanted Reviews

Ultimately, “Most Wanted” is an inherently interesting true story that's told in a way that saps it of its excitement. The bold narrative structure doesn't quite live up to what it's trying to do.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Jul 5, 2022

If you like a good yarn about the importance of investigative journalism, you'll definitely enjoy this... Oh, and Jim Gaffigan is really scary. He should be the bad guy in everything.

Full Review | Sep 3, 2021

A low-key thriller, short on action but long on intrigue.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 29, 2021

Olivier has said that if not for Victor Malarek, he may never have returned to Canada or be able to tell his side of the story. Unfortunately, none of these sentiments shine through in its visual representation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 3, 2020

Writer/director Daniel Roby does a masterful job of keeping the trio of plot-lines clear, allowing the viewer to become engrossed in this extraordinary story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Nov 27, 2020

Using blanched lighting setups and grainy effects, the film evokes those gritty 1970s true-crime films such as Midnight Express and The French Connection, and that's always a good thing.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 28, 2020

Marred by some incoherent stylistic choices, Target number One is a solid thriller, with Harnett and the cast doing fine work.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 22, 2020

Most Wanted pulls off a surprise that elicited a gasp from me about halfway through the film. It grabs your attention and makes the viewer more invested in how the rest of the story will play out.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 25, 2020

Much of the stuff with the investigation and dirty police feels wildly familiar to the point where it never really takes hold as a solid piece of drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2020

The back and forth storytelling works to the film's advantage, as do the strong lead performances by Pilon and Hartnett. (Full Content Review for Parents - Violence, Profanity, Drugs, etc. - also Available)

Full Review | Aug 7, 2020

Been waiting for a good Josh Hartnett movie? This is it. He delivers and so does this "based on a true story" plot. Welcome back, Josh.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 6, 2020

Gripping "Wanted" an unexpected tale of redemption.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Aug 5, 2020

It's a compelling, complex and captivating mystery thriller that makes use of all of the two-plus hour runtime that will be at the top of my 2020 film list.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 5, 2020

Most Wanted plays like an egregious copycat of tropes from Midnight Express and All the President's Men, but can't quite seem to convey the mood conjured in either of those films.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 1, 2020

Writer-director Daniel Roby unfolds the tale in a hard-edged period style, tracing complex connections between people on various sides of the drug trade.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 30, 2020

Most Wanted isn't the most original movie you'll see this year, the story it tells is deeply distressing, and despite its '80s trappings, it feels relevant to our current moment, making for an absorbing watch.

Full Review | Jul 30, 2020

Written and directed in a choppy and disjointed manner by Daniel Roby, Most Wanted ... is so hell-bent on making Victor [Malarek] look like the only hero ... that it cheapens the story by giving an unrealistic portrayal of the legal process.

Hartnett, strikingly tall, lean and fearless as Malarek, conveys the bitter realities of a diminished press with diminished resources.

Full Review | Original Score: A | Jul 28, 2020

Most Wanted runs a little long and a little ragged, but it's still a solid adaptation of a mind-boggling, true-life story.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 27, 2020

"Most Wanted" is a decent film that's mostly undone by a lack of anything truly concrete to grab on to.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 26, 2020

‘Most Wanted’: Film Review

Antoine-Olivier Pilon and Josh Hartnett headline a watchable but standard-issue thriller, based on a real-life case of Canadian police entrapment.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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The hard-headed reporter who doesn’t play by the rules is a stock character of films that invariably do. So it proves, again, in “Most Wanted,” a fact-based Canadian procedural of police skulduggery and journalistic derring-do that does its own job with proficient integrity, but as much inventiveness as you’d guess from that all-purpose placeholder of a title. Writer-director Daniel Roby has fictionalized the grim story of Alain Olivier, a small-time drug dealer tricked in 1989 by Canuck police into traveling to Thailand to orchestrate a major heroin score, landing him several years in a local prison. Victor Malarek, the real-life journo who uncovered the agents’ corruption, retains his identity in Roby’s telling, though as played with furrowed brow and gruff virtue by Josh Hartnett , he’s a movie hero through and through.

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What sparks of strangeness and intrigue “Most Wanted” has emerge principally from the presence of Antoine-Olivier Pilon — the electric star of Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy” in 2014 — as Olivier, here renamed Daniel Léger for purposes of creative leeway. His gangly body language and penetrating, off-kilter stare suggest a real, bewildered inner rage, not defined simply by the tabloid-ready circumstances of his victimhood. You needn’t be familiar with the true story to anticipate his arc here, but Pilon makes for volatile watching all the same. When the script shifts to matters of newsroom infighting and shoe-leather reporting, Hartnett takes the lead with his usual likeable diligence, but it’s hard not to feel we’ve drifted from the film’s live wire.

Popular on Variety

It’s a good 45 minutes before Pilon’s and Hartnett’s halves of the film intersect, exposing a staggered non-linear timeline that, while deftly engineered, doesn’t yield quite the dramatic payoff you might expect. Before then, “Most Wanted” introduces its leads in leisurely fashion. Malarek is established as a star print and TV newsman whose earnest commitment to truth-seeking hasn’t made him many friends in high places, and a loving but inattentive husband to his wife Anna (Amanda Crew, thanklessly cast). He’s lightly admonished for missing the birth of their first child to chase a scoop; beyond that, Roby’s screenplay isn’t much concerned with Malarek’s home life either.

Léger is presented to us with more human creases and question marks. An itinerant manual laborer with a drug habit and very bad taste in companions, he has a chequered personal history that is revealed only in patches — the blank spaces turn out to be crucial, particularly when the police identify him as an ideal patsy for an entrapment operation. Falling in with brutish low-level criminal Picker (Jim Gaffigan, playing seamily and effectively against type) is a dead end that pretty much anybody but the dim, desperate Léger could see coming: Soon enough, he’s sent to Thailand to do a supposedly routine deal. Cue reversal, betrayal and a stint in the infamous Bang Kwang prison — portrayed here in suitably sobering fashion, though with slightly less baroque hellishness than in 2017’s “A Prayer Before Dawn,” another true-life tale of a hapless westerner drawn into its violent confines.

As Malarek pursues the truth of what exactly went down — to the grave consternation of his editor (J.C. Mackenzie), who’d rather he just left the whole thing alone — viewers might arrive at it slightly ahead of him. At over two hours, “Most Wanted” could stand to pick up the pace of its own investigation: Malarek’s office squabbles and marital strains, in particular, are diversions that consume considerable screen time without accumulating much emotional weight. Whenever it’s on Thai soil, the film moves with tightened urgency and vigor: Ronald Plante’s camerawork, crisp and handsome throughout, gains in humid restlessness as it travels from the serene, misted vistas of British Columbia.

Along with Pilon’s striking performance, the film’s sturdy, subdued craftsmanship keeps it from movie-of-the-week territory, even as Roby’s script ticks overly familiar boxes. Eloi Painchaud’s score contributes subtle menace, while Yvann Thibaudeau’s editing zips and darts and cross-cuts in ways that enliven passages of procedural cliché. Still, it’s hard not to feel that “Most Wanted” has hedged its bets between the perspectives of two characters, when we’d rather see Olivier/Léger’s story through his own naive eyes. What’s that they say about journalists becoming the story?

Reviewed online, London, July 22, 2020. Running time: 125 MIN.

• Production: (Canada) A Saban Films presentation in association with Highland Film Group, Goldrush Entertainment, Club Illico, TVA of a Caramel Films, Bataillon Films, Zone Film production. (International sales: Highland Film Group, Los Angeles.) Producers: André Rouleau, Valérie D'Auteuil. Executive producers: Daniel Roby, Yvann Thibeaudeau, Marc Côté, Patrick Roy, Anne-Claire Villeneuve, Eric Gozlan, Richard Iott, Arianne Fraser, Delphine Perrier, Henry Winterstern. Co-executive prodyucer: Ryan Winterstern.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Daniel Roby. Camera: Ronald Plante. Editor: Yvann Thibaudeau. Music: Eloi Painchaud.
• With: Antoine Olivier Pilon, Josh Hartnett, Stephen McHattie, Don McKellar, Jim Gaffigan, J.C. Mackenzie, Amanda Crew.

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‘most wanted’: film review.

Josh Hartnett plays a Canadian journalist in 'Most Wanted,' Daniel Roby's true story of a scandalous drug sting.

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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A grotesque case of cops being so eager to bust a drug dealer that they unwittingly create one, Daniel Roby’s Most Wanted adapts a true story in which a young Canadian (played by Antoine-Olivier Pilon) wound up spending years in a Thai prison for a crime he was practically forced to commit. Josh Hartnett plays the real Canuck investigative journalist Victor Malarek, whose life has already inspired a couple of biopic-like productions, and who doggedly pursued the truth here; but the pic may draw more attention stateside as a very against-type outing for wholesome comic Jim Gaffigan , who plays the scuzzy informant who sets this upsetting story in motion.

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Pilon’s Daniel Léger (not the real man’s name) is an addict who has been clean for six months, working in a forest far from those who might tempt him back to his old life. But his plans to start over in Vancouver go south mere hours after his return: The friend who’d promised to rent him a room instead strands him on a boat with Gaffigan’s Picker, a volatile party guy who shoves dope and prostitutes in Danny’s face, aiming to make the kid dependent on him.

Release date: Jul 24, 2020

Picker hires Danny to help on charter-fishing trips, feeding him tiny bags of heroin and tall tales about his exploits as a smuggler. In truth, Picker is a low-level informant for Sgt. Cooper (Stephen McHattie), a going-nowhere narcotics cop in desperate need of a newsworthy bust. When Picker tells Cooper he knows someone involved in major drug smuggling from Thailand, the cop agrees to pay him 80 grand if they can execute a successful sting.

Which is harder than it sounds, because the only thing Daniel ever did on his previous trips to Southeast Asia was buy drugs for his own consumption. He knows nothing about wholesaling. But with a few deft con-man moves, nicely played by Gaffigan, Picker manipulates him into amassing a debt, then points to a way out of it. Soon the reluctant, worried young man is being coerced into meetings with Sgt. Cooper, who pretends he’s a dealer in search of a new supplier.

Meanwhile, the film is flash-forwarding to Toronto scenes in which up-and-coming reporter Malarek is hitting speed bumps in his career. Roby’s script relies on some stale heroic-reporter tropes and stakes-raising devices (like the editor who tells him if his next story isn’t front-page-worthy, he’s fired); if these aren’t enough, Malarek’s wife ( Silicon Valley ‘s Amanda Crew ) has just had a baby, making him extra-vulnerable to any enemies he might make.

Nevertheless, Malarek smells something fishy in government press releases about a Canadian who got busted with dope in Thailand, and, despite strong discouragement from officials, he hops a plane to dig up the truth.

Quick and pretty constant cutting between different threads of this story keep Most Wanted from feeling as long as it actually is, but it also keeps us from committing fully to any one story, all of which feel slightly underwritten. Pilon and Hartnett ostensibly have the central roles, and each gets his share of melodramatic twists to react to. But the film’s unacknowledged dramatic center sits with Cooper. Roby would’ve been smart to invest more in McHattie’s performance, as the presumably ordinary cop gets caught up in the momentum of an expensive sting he launched in good faith, albeit with insufficient research. By the time he understands he’s working on busting a nobody who’s basically innocent, it would be career suicide to call things off. That’s a dilemma worth our attention, even if we all know how we’re going to judge Cooper in the end.

Production companies: Caramel Films, Bataillon Films, Zone Film Distributor: Saban Films (Available on demand) Cast: Antoine-Olivier Pilon, Josh Hartnett, Jim Gaffigan, Stephen McHattie, Amanda Crew Director-Screenwriter: Daniel Roby Producers: Valérie d’Auteuil, Daniel Roby, André Rouleau Director of photography: Ronald Plante Production designer: David Pelletier Costume designer: Veronique Marchessault Editor: Yvann Thibaudeau Composer: Jorane Casting director: Francis Cantin

Rated R, 125 minutes

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Parents' guide to, most wanted.

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Common Sense Media Review

Effective true-crime story has drugs, crooked cops.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Most Wanted is a crime drama based on real events. It tells the story of a Canadian man who's set up by crooked police to look like a drug lord. He's imprisoned in Thailand while a journalist fights to get him out. Drug dealing and drug use are major parts of the story: Drugs are…

Why Age 16+?

Drugs are a major part of the story. Drug smuggling and dealing. Drug use, mostl

Guns and shooting. Bloody dead body in street. Prison fighting, punching, stabbi

Frequent strong language includes uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "bulls

Kissing. One character straddles another. Sexy dancing. Brief objectification of

Any Positive Content?

Depicts corrupt, real-life systems that allow an innocent man to be locked up fo

Journalist Victor Malarek (based on a real person) and Daniel Léger (based on th

Parents need to know that Most Wanted is a crime drama based on real events. It tells the story of a Canadian man who's set up by crooked police to look like a drug lord. He's imprisoned in Thailand while a journalist fights to get him out. Drug dealing and drug use are major parts of the story: Drugs are shown and used, drug paraphernalia is shown, and a character is said to be an addict. There's also cigarette smoking and social drinking. Violent content includes guns and shooting, blood, dead bodies, fighting, stabbing, a car crash, and a woman and child in peril (their home is attacked, windows smashed). Language is very strong, with frequent use of "f--k," "s--t," and more. A couple kisses, with the man briefly straddling the woman. Three characters dance in a sexy way, and there's brief objectification of a woman. Josh Hartnett and Antoine Olivier Pilon co-star. Though it's long and a bit messy, the movie has an interesting structure and characters, and it's recommended for mature viewers.

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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Drugs are a major part of the story. Drug smuggling and dealing. Drug use, mostly smoking heroin/blends of heroin. Drugs (mainly heroin) and drug paraphernalia shown. Social drinking. Cigarette smoking.

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Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting. Bloody dead body in street. Prison fighting, punching, stabbing, bloody wounds. One character slices another's face, with blood. Woman attacked in her home, windows smashed. Car crash. Stealing gas for motorcycle.

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Frequent strong language includes uses of "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "bulls--t," "a--hole," "t-ts," the "N" word and other racist slurs, "ass," "hell," "d--k," "pr--k," and "porn."

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kissing. One character straddles another. Sexy dancing. Brief objectification of a woman. Brief lewd doodling.

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Positive Messages

Depicts corrupt, real-life systems that allow an innocent man to be locked up for life. Also depicts the brave and unflagging efforts of a few good people to stand up against difficult odds.

Positive Role Models

Journalist Victor Malarek (based on a real person) and Daniel Léger (based on the real-life Alain Olivier) could both be considered role models in some ways, as flawed as they are. Victor often puts his work ahead of his family, but does learn his lesson by the end. He can also be pushy and threatening, but his efforts do save a life. Daniel is a drug addict who tries to get clean but falls off the wagon several times -- but his efforts to continue fighting also result in his freedom. By the end, he has embraced spirituality (Zen Buddhism) and (according to end titles) never touched heroin again. Female characters are thinly drawn, largely lack agency.

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

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What's the Story?

In MOST WANTED, Canadian journalist Victor Malarek ( Josh Hartnett ) wants to dig deeper into a story about a Canadian citizen who's been arrested for dealing heroin and is being held in Thailand. Meanwhile, Daniel Léger ( Antoine Olivier Pilon ), a heroin addict who's trying to go straight, finishes a logging job and promptly has all his money stolen. But Picker ( Jim Gaffigan ), who runs a fishing boat, hires him. When he's tempted by a package of heroin, Daniel finds himself in debt to Picker and gets involved in a scheme to bring back a shipment of drugs from Thailand. The plan is engineered by a team of crooked cops led by Frank Cooper ( Stephen McHattie ). As Victor gets closer to the truth, he finds his wife, Anna ( Amanda Crew ), and their newborn daughter threatened by unknown forces.

Is It Any Good?

Messy and overlong, this based-on-a-true-story crime drama still has an innovative structure and crisp, colorful performances that grab you, even as you feel enraged by its cruelty and corruption. With Most Wanted , writer-director Daniel Roby has figured out a creative way to tell the story from various ends, all meeting in the middle with a satisfying snap. This way, a variety of characters end up feeling more human -- they drive the story rather than being driven by it. Pilon is terrific, at first coming across as past redemption but eventually developing fears and hopes that make him appealing.

Gaffigan adds dark humor to his nasty, deceitful character, and McHattie is as grizzled as they come, broken by the fact that he's been overlooked for a much needed promotion. Hartnett swaggers across the screen with his long, flowing hair, but he too becomes likable thanks to his connection to his wife. Unfortunately, Crew has little to do other than wait for her husband and worry, and the only other major female character, played by Rose-Marie Perreault, disappears before she can leave much of a mark. Roby relies on irritating, wobbly hand-held camerawork for much of the movie, and it does occasionally betray a bit of self-importance and bloat, but overall Most Wanted works thanks to its focus and its life energy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Most Wanted 's violence . Is it meant to be realistic? Does it feel shocking or exciting? How does the movie achieve this feeling?

How are drugs depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences for using drugs? Why does that matter?

The movie is based on a true story. How accurate do you think it is to what actually happened? Why might filmmakers choose to alter the facts in a movie based on real life? How could you find out more?

Are either Victor Malarek or Daniel Léger, or both, role models ? Why? What are their faults? Do their achievements overcome their faults?

Why do you think the police officers who engineered this scheme weren't punished? How did you feel about them at the end of the movie? What could be done to change this kind of situation in the future?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : July 24, 2020
• Cast : Josh Hartnett , Stephen McHattie , Antoine Olivier Pilon
• Director : Daniel Roby
• Studio : Saban Films
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 125 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : drug content, language throughout and some violence
• Last updated : December 7, 2022

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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

‘Most Wanted’: Despite chaotic editing, a great thriller comes through

The powerful and well-acted true-crime story of a small-time drug dealer in deep trouble is told with multiple timelines that overcomplicate the narrative..

Police are led to believe a small-time drug addict (Antoine Olivier Pilon) is a major dealer in “Most Wanted.”

Saban Films

What a mess.

That applies to the editing techniques employed in writer-director Daniel Roby’s enthralling but needlessly overcomplicated true-crime thriller “Most Wanted” — and it applies even more so to the gigantic mess made by Canadian law enforcement officials who were so desperate for a splashy bust they devoted an insane amount of time and resources to busting a small-time addict and drug dealer who wound up facing a life sentence in a Thai prison.

Inspired by true events but filled with fictional and quite theatrical touches, the generically titled “Most Wanted” is set in the late 1980s and travels in two timelines, one involving Josh Hartnett’s star investigative journalist Victor Malarek (an accomplished real-life reporter), and flashback sequences centering on Daniel Leger (Antoine Olivier Pilon), a 25-year-old addict living on the fringes of society and supporting his habit with minor crimes and drug deals. Malerek risks his career and even sees his family threatened over his dogged efforts to help Leger avoid spending the rest of his life in prison in Thailand on a conviction that is problematic to say the least.

As we bounce back between the two stories, the timeline gets lost in the weeds — especially when Victor starts appearing in the flashback sequences and meeting with Daniel in prison in an effort to expose the injustices inflicted upon Daniel. This powerful and well-acted story might have been much more effective if told in strictly linear fashion.

But the editing room is closed, so here we go. Hartnett has the long-haired, swashbuckling, talented but temperamental journalist thing down pat, as Victor tirelessly works his sources, moonlights on a TV magazine show, puts in 12-hour days and gets into spats with his editor, who is growing tired of Victor’s antics but nonetheless agrees to bankroll a trip to Thailand, where Victor wants to get to the bottom of the case that landed the small-timer Daniel Leger in prison and painted as a major drug dealer.

Meanwhile, in the flashback sequences, Antoine Olivier Pilon turns in a brilliant performance as the troubled Daniel, who drifts around the Vancouver area in search of his next score. Daniel’s wandering leads him to a fishing boat manned by a guy named Glen (Jim Gaffigan), who’s a real piece of work — charming and funny one moment, waving a gun around and threatening lives the next. Glen is a drug dealer and a police informant, and he works both sides with equal deceit and manipulation. When veteran task force officer Frank Cooper (Stephen McHattie) is passed over for a major promotion, he’s champing at the bit for a major bust, and he’s all too willing to believe Glen’s B.S. story about Daniel being a major cartel player who is about to make a huge heroin buy in Thailand. Glen manipulates the hapless Daniel into taking that trip, and before you can say “disaster in the making,” Cooper and his team are posing as drug buyers, Daniel is making promises he can’t keep, and everyone ends up in an alley in Thailand, and that’s when things REALLY go off the rails.

The character actor Stephen McHattie owns every scene he’s in as the world-weary Cooper, who is so blinded by ambition he can’t see that Daniel is clearly not a big-time player. Jim Gaffigan once again reminds us of his dramatic chops; his character of Glen would be worthy of a whole movie himself. “Most Wanted” runs a little long and a little ragged, but it’s still a solid adaptation of a mind-boggling, true-life story.