Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) comes from a clique of hip smugglers in New Orleans: daddy was a smuggler, his brother-in-law is a smuggler, and so are all of his friends. As a sailor on a huge freighter, he brings illegal goods into the US, until one day he decides to go straight - to live a quiet life with his wife (Kate Beckinsale) and children as an alarm installer. But then his brother-in-law screws up and gets deeply into debt with a dangerous gangster (Giovanni Ribisi), and Faraday is forced into that cinematic cliche - one last heist.

Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (101 Reykyavík) goes to Hollywood: Contraband is a remake of the Icelandic thriller Reykyavík-Rotterdam, in which Kormákur played the lead. Although very suspenseful with lots of action, this movie is short on new ideas - Kormákur's usual feel for interesting characters seems to have fallen by the wayside.