Semper Fi is a 2019 action film about a police officer who serves in the Marine Corps Reserves, faced with an ethical dilemma when it comes to helping his brother in prison.
In Bridgewater, New York, 2005, a group of friends who call themselves Jaeger (Finn Wittrock), Snowball (Arturo Castro), Milk (Beau Knapp), and half-brothers Oyster (Nat Wolff) and Callahan (Jai Courtney) are all Marine reservists, doing their weekend a month to serve their country. Callahan, a cop in regular life, is their leader, both in and out of uniform, saddled with keeping Oyster in line, the younger, smaller man with a criminal record that Callahan managed to get waived. However, one drunk night at a bar, Oyster makes a mistake, ending up back in prison, where life behind bars is rough. Meanwhile, the boys do tours in Iraq, and when Callahan returns, find his broken relationship with Oyster worsened by the abuses and torture he’s suffered in jail. Feeling his brother may be in trouble, he hatches a dangerous plan to set him free.
As a plot twist, director and co-writer Henry Alex Rubin‘s Semper Fi is filled with all the expected testosterone-filled military roughhousing we’ve seen before, which usually gets its payoff on the battlefield where the true test of ‘brotherhood’ gets its biggest challenge. Naturally, we do end up in some harrowing crossfire in a warzone, but extending that to a prison story adds a curious layer. That splits this into two parts, where we get some depth about two men in different kinds of battles. It mostly works, with Oyster and Callahan well-established as close but at odds, soon divided by the incident and clashing personalities.
Callahan is burdened by his responsibility, having practically raised the younger Oyster, accepting legal guardianship that he feels has never been appreciated, while the half-brother claims he’s been constantly underfoot. This all matters when it’s clear that while in prison, Oyster is subject to repeated abuse by guards and Callahan can’t get satisfaction in getting it reported. This is laid out fairly straight with little nuance, leaving it a blunt experience, but it’s handled well enough by Rubin’s direction and some solid performances to make it count.
That’s made all the more effective by the film’s rugged sense of reality, especially the more it presses forward, some gritty moments lending this some punch right where it needs it. Despite some limitations the filmmakers face, the choice to be intimate with these relationships rather than reaching for something larger is a good one, keeping this about the gaps between these brothers the reason to stick with it. It doesn’t always have the intent it aims for, but it’s hard to dismiss the emotional consequences of what these men are going through.
Semper Fi might have a conventional title and marketing campaign, but there’s more here than meets the eye, with a solid hook and a believable set of performances, especially by Courtney, who carries most of the heavy weight. Yes, it goes a little off track in selling its jailbreak schemes, but for what it wants to be, does it well enough to merit a look.