Why Yahya Abdul-Mateen II finds himself in such an uneasy partnership in By Any Means starts with a difficult murder investigation. Having to rely on someone whose methods make you uncomfortable probably doesn’t help.
That is where Yahya Abdul-Mateen II finds himself in By Any Means.
He plays an FBI agent investigating a string of murders targeting civil rights activists. The case eventually puts him alongside a mafia enforcer who has become an informant, played by Mark Wahlberg.
It is not exactly an obvious partnership.
The two men are trying to reach the same answer, but they come at the investigation from very different places. Abdul-Mateen’s character represents the FBI. Wahlberg’s character comes from a criminal background and has his own ideas about how problems should be handled.
Some of those ideas are not exactly by the book.
That creates plenty of friction once the two are forced to work together.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has to work with Mark Wahlberg
The interesting part of the pairing is that neither character can simply dismiss the other.
They need each other.
There is a killer, or killers, to find, and the murders involving civil rights activists give the investigation a serious urgency. Whatever differences exist between the FBI agent and the informant have to take a back seat, at least long enough for them to keep moving toward the truth.
Of course, saying that is easier than actually doing it.
The FBI agent has one way of approaching the case. Wahlberg’s mafia informant has another. When two people with very different backgrounds are suddenly chasing the same goal, disagreements are almost inevitable.
That tension becomes part of the appeal of By Any Means.
The case may be what brings them together, but their uneasy relationship gives the story another problem to work through.
The actors had a much easier time than their characters
Off camera, things were considerably less complicated.
While the two characters do not exactly see eye to eye, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II had very positive things to say about the man playing his unlikely partner.
Abdul-Mateen said Mark Wahlberg was absolutely wonderful to work with.
That makes for a pretty funny contrast.
On screen, audiences are watching two men with different backgrounds, different instincts and different ideas about how far they should go to get answers. Behind the scenes, Abdul-Mateen’s experience with Wahlberg apparently could not have been much smoother.
Sometimes that kind of relationship between actors can make the conflict on screen even more fun to watch. They may be playing characters who frustrate each other, but the people playing them have to make that back-and-forth believable.
By Any Means finds drama in two men who don’t agree
There is already plenty at stake in the murder investigation at the center of By Any Means.
Adding an FBI agent and a mafia informant who do not always agree on how to handle the job only complicates matters.
They are on the same side. They want the same thing. Getting there, however, is where the trouble begins.
Fortunately for Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, working with Mark Wahlberg in real life was apparently much easier than anything their characters have to deal with.
Click on the video below to hear Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
By Any Means is now playing in theaters.
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