Wahlberg, Berg team up again for entertaining ‘Spenser, Confidential’

Posted on March 27, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

I will freely admit that I’m a movie theater snob. I like going to the movies. Of the more than 100 movies I saw from 2019, I saw all but four in a theater. In this new world in which we find ourselves, however, I’m now watching movies at home.

I mostly point this out to note that I’m simply not used to watching movies at home. The first at-home film for me in this new era is “Spenser Confidential,” a Netflix original starring Mark Wahlberg (“Patriots Day”) and directed by Peter Berg (“Lone Survivor,” “Deepwater Horizon”).

The movie is very loosely based on the book “Wonderland” by Ace Atkins and uses the names of characters (and nothing else) created by Robert B. Parker, including his private investigator Spenser, who was featured in the 1980s television series “Spenser: For Hire.”

The result is a buddy-(ex)-cop action comedy set in Boston that doesn’t really add much new to the genre but still manages to charm thanks to solid lead and supporting performances from the cast. The tone does vary quite a bit, with the story venturing into some dark (but not too dark) territory, and the comedy becoming borderline slapstick at times. This breezy atmosphere, however, keeps the film relatively light, which I appreciated in this coronavirus-wracked  world.

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