|
By Dwight Brown | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES
 |
Wesley Snipes (left) and Don Cheadle
star in and Antoine Fuqua directed movie, "Brooklyn's
Finest."
Photo © Overture Films / Phillip
V. Caruso. |
RELATED LINKS
|
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - "How
much longer you gonna be dodging bullets out here in the street?”
says Tango, an undercover cop.
There are only a few authentic, high-quality
New York City cop films: “Serpico,” “French
Connection,” “Prince of the City,” “Narc,”
“Training Day.” Now “Brooklyn’s Finest,”
a thoroughly engaging, nerve-fraying ode to wayward cops,
can be added to that rarefied list. Graphic script, instinctive
direction, engaging acting, superior production quality, dire
emotions. This film has it all.
Three flawed Brooklyn policemen struggle with
their jobs and personal lives during a major drug sting. Eddie
Dugan (Richard Gere), 50ish, is seven days away from retirement
and can smell the finish line. Two enthusiastic rookie cops
(Jesse Williams, Logan Marshall-Green) are assigned to him
and are as eager to fight crime, as he is to avoid it, “This
job takes enough out of you. Don’t’ take it home.”
Thirtysomething-year-old Sal Procida (Ethan
Hawke) lives in a rundown house that’s overrun with
a mold that is affecting his pregnant wife (Lili Taylor) and
his five kids. He’s got to buy a new home fast, and
the money he eyes during drug busts looks awfully tempting.
Clarence “Tango” Butler (Don Cheadle)
is a 40-year-old undercover narc who’s done time in
prison to sure up his street credibility. While in the pen,
a drug kingpin named Caz (Wesley Snipes) saves his life. Back
on the streets, the line between law-enforcement and criminal
behavior has blurred for Tango.
Three separate lives. Three strangers. Three
destinies. One compelling script that binds the trio together
like gum on the bottom of a cop’s shoe. Credit first-time
screenwriter Michael C. Martin for the distinct, well-developed
characters, their life-altering storylines and some of the
most compelling inner-city dialogue ever written. A drained,
desperate and frustrated Tango demanding a promotion from
his Lieutenant, “I’m f----- in the game. You gotta
get me out of here. Desk, suit, tie. I need that sh—
like water.” An anguished Sal begging his priest in
a confession booth, “I don’t want god’s
forgiveness, I want his f------- help!” Martin grew
up in the Brooklyn projects and his experience is on every
page of a gripping script that gets you inside the minds of
these distraught urban soldiers.
Director Antoine Fuqua, who took stark realism
to a new standard with “Training Day,” proves
that he is the king of policeman-gone-wrong crime/drama/thrillers.
He gets complex performances from his entire cast, stages
action scenes with kinetic zeal, pays rapt attention to subtext
and his ability to enhance personal drama is exceptional.
For two hours he holds your attention so tight you’re
afraid to blink because you might miss a bullet. Fuqua’s
directing prowess is on par with that of Martin Scorsese or
Sidney Lumet.
Of course it helps a writer’s cause when
a cast, crowned by Gere, Hawke and Cheadle, adds life to dialogue
and dimension to characters. Gere would not be the obvious
choice for a rundown, long-in-the-tooth police vet, but he
brings a certain melancholy to Eddie that makes you hope he
will snap out of his downward spiral. Hawke, who gets better
with every movie, makes his evilly pragmatic character sympathetic.
Cheadle, the chameleon actor, lets Tango’s despair and
ambivalence rain on you. Wesley Snipes makes a stirring acting
comeback as the charismatic Caz. And though testosterone run
amuck drives the cast, two actresses steal scenes too. Shannon
Kane (“Entourage”) plays a beguiling prostitute
that softens Eddie’s steel heart. Ellen Barkin, as a
rogue agent who threatens Tango’s career and throws
a punch at him, is venomously lethal.
Cinematographer Patrick Murguía is as
adept with the eerie dark lighting in Sal’s basement
laundry room as he is with broad daylight assassinations.
Production designer Thérèse Deprez’s filthy
tenement apartments look so real you feel like a roach is
climbing up your back. And Barbara Tulliver’s editing
is as tight as the band on a pimp’s hat.
Watching the dirty badges in this gritty urban
tale lose their shine is absolutely riveting.
Visit NNPA Film Critic Dwight Brown at www.DwightBrownInk.com.
|
