The highly versatile Tim Roth stars as Hank Harris, a DEA agent who gets kidnapped by a small time Mexican gun runner in 600 Miles. Sicario it is not. The film’s early scenes depict twerpy south-of-the-border Arnulfo (Kristyan Ferrer) acquiring automatic weapons at Arizona gun shops and gun shows. His pesky gringo friend Carson (Harrison Thomas) does most of the work, easily acquiring whatever automatic weapons he wants although he does get carded when he tries to buy cigarettes.
As Harris attempts to bust Arnulfo, Carson sneaks up on him and cold cocks him. Then we never see Carson again and it is left to Roth to provide any charisma. The very talented actor (and don’t forget Roth’s one foray into directing–the underrated The War Zone) can only do so much here. There is a surfeit of driving scenes where very little happens. It may be the film’s central point that unglamorous schleps like Arnulfo fit the actual profile of low-level players in the over-the-border drug game but Arnulfo is such a boring character he drags down the proceedings. First-time director Gabriel Ripstein does an impressive job with the scenes of violence that ensue but theses shots are no more than diamonds in the rough. A clever enigmatic final scene puts a nice exclamation point on things but generally 600 Miles seems half-baked and often self-consciously deliberate.