No Sudden Move movie review & film summary (2021)

“I did not create the river, I am merely paddling the raft,” says a mysterious character late in “No Sudden Move.” We are all in the river. Some will paddle, some will swim, some will drown, and some will push people underwater. To make this point, Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon set their story against the auto race in Detroit in 1954, bouncing a cast of criminals and auto executives off each other. It starts with the recruitment of a trio of tough guys under the guidance of the mysterious Jones (Brendan Fraser, wonderfully channeling Orson Welles in “The Third Man”). Curt (Don Cheadle) has just been released from prison and needs one good job to get out of town before some of the criminal power players that he’s crossed come after him, including a peculiar figure named Watkins (Bill Duke). He’s partnered with a guy named Ronald (Benicio Del Toro), who happens to be having an affair with Vanessa (Julia Fox), the wife of mob boss Frank Capelli (Ray Liotta). That Ronald and Curt are both on incredibly thin ice with two of the most powerful people in the Motor City is not accidental. They are criminals who need one job to escape with their lives.

Rounding out this trio is the wildcard Charley (Kieran Culkin), who leads the criminals into the home of the milquetoast Matt (David Harbour, doing his best film work to date), taking his wife (Amy Seimetz) and kids (including Noah Jupe) hostage and ordering the low-level employee to retrieve an item from the safe in the office of his boss. They know he’ll do it because they know he’s sleeping with the boss’ secretary. Of course, it’s no spoiler to say this doesn’t go well. Before long, there’s a body, there’s a betrayal, and there’s the potential for more carnage. As Curt and Ronald are forced to think on the fly, the names of Capelli and Watkins filter through their dialogue, representing the criminal powers that control their lives, always in the background, always threatening. Solomon’s script is a classic example of compounding mistakes and hidden motives—nefarious intent always releases skeletons from closets.

“No Sudden Move” feels like it could be almost done about halfway through and then it shifts again to become something else. Solomon’s script constantly moves in a subtle manner (not suddenly, of course), following various POVs and strands. Some will find it arguably overly complex as the midsection gets a little cluttered with characters and reveals, but it’s a minor complaint for a film that’s certainly never boring. It’s almost more enjoyable when one stops trying to connect the dots and just enjoys the experience from scene to scene. It’s about how often people like Curt, Ronald, and even Matt have to think on the fly, keeping their head above water in that aforementioned river. Without spoilers, it arrives at a fascinatingly cynical and yet truthful place regarding how greed and crime impacts the rich differently than those who made them rich in the first place.