Brooklyn's Finest

2009. Dir: Antoine Fuqua. Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes and Vincent D'Onofrio. ●●●○○



Solidly gripping Brooklyn's Finest is a clear film de Antoine Fuqua displaying all the macho posturing, bling and shots of the sun that you expect from him. However it comes short of the sum of it's parts and the chain of coincidences seems forced and - just a little - incoherent.

We start with three convenient cliched cop characters; a disolusioned alcoholic bobby-on-the-beat about to retire (Gere), a family man being dragged into corruption to have a chance to support his brood (Hawke) and an undercover agent who's so far in his loyalties are in question (Cheadle). By using these familiar settings Fuqua is trying to both shortcut the introduction to these stereotypes and introduce an overriding operatic arch to their variations.



That it doesn't work is perhaps because whilst we know every beat of the characters he still feels the need to introduce routin and charcter for the first half of the film, thereby rushing the drag toward the climax. In this way we believe the motivations of the lead trio because they tell us that it's so and not because we've organically come to understand their feelings.

Of the three storylines the one that suffers the most is loner Richard Gere who doesn't quite have the gravitas to fill the role, and we are left slightly confused as to why after dodging the police work for many years he gets involved with the final crescendo of violence. Don Cheadle does an excellent job in his third, ably matched by Wesley Snipes as the drug dealer he can't allow himself to betray.

But it's Ethan Hawke who does the best in his role, reunited with his Training Day director, essentially playing the moment between when that character tips into Denzel Washington's and lets the desperation and catholic guilt flow through him. There's a very nicely shot scene in a confessional (it's in the trailer and works better in context) with Hawke railing against God's impotence.

Brian F O'Byrne (Million Dollar Baby, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) is also convincing as Hawke's conscience, a fellow drugs officer trying to keep him on the straight and narrow.

You'll notice we've only mentioned the male actors, this is because Fuqua can only direct women in how they are connected to the men, as wives and whores. Even Ellen Barkin as Cheadle FBI superior is really just a man with a skirt, with every edge of femininity erased from her - either by the job or by the screenwriters. The message of this is clear; out on the streets women either need rescuing or protecting or they're not really women.

The technical aspects are fine, and Fuqua is obviously comfortable with the hip hop and drug ridden streets that he invokes with the movie.

Overall I would say this picture over does the exposition and rushes into the climax, it's fairly watchable but definitely worth waiting until it comes out on DVD for a beer and a pizza on a quiet Friday night.