Brooklyn's Finest

Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest is a lot like a "Greatest Hits" collection of cop movie cliches. There's not a surprising moment in the just over two hours that it runs. Heck, the first 20 minutes or so feels like you're flipping channels between different cop shows you've seen before. This is when we're introduced to the main characters. There's a veteran cop who's a week away from retirement, and has just stopped caring about everything. He wakes up every morning with a shot of whiskey, and pointing a gun in his mouth. There's the undercover cop who's gone a bit too deep undercover, and has become good friends with one of the people he's supposed to be investigating. And of course, there's the guilt-stricken dirty cop in a confession booth.

Yeah, we've seen it all before, but the performances on hand at least make it watchable, if not credible. Richard Gere plays Eddie, the veteran. Some critics have accused his performance here as being stiff and wooden, but I found him surprisingly convincing. He's laid back in his speech and performance, but I think that's only because he's playing a character who feels like he's at the end of his rope, and is clinging for some form of redemption. Don Cheadle plays Tango, an undercover cop who finds himself torn between the genuine relationship he has built with a drug lord named Caz (Wesley Snipes), and his duty. Whoever he ends up betraying in the end, whether his friend or the law, it will weigh heavy on him. Finally, Ethan Hawke plays Sal, a family man with a wife (Lili Taylor) and a few kids, and with twins on the way. He wants to move his family into a better house, but the pay he's getting as a cop isn't enough. So, who would notice if some drug money just happened to disappear during a bust? His obsession for a better life grows even stronger when his wife's asthma becomes a problem due to the mold in their current home. He needs the money for his dream house, and will go to any means to get it.

The script by first-time screenwriter Michael C. Martin cuts between these three stories, until they all converge in one climax. And although it never quite makes us forget we've seen and heard these stories before, Brooklyn's Finest does have its moments where it is compelling. Things are slowest during the first half when they characters and plots are being set up. We can pick up where the individual plots are going to go fairly early on, so we settle back and wait. But then, I found myself caring about the characters more than I expected. While I would not exactly call Sal a sympathetic character, his situation is tragically easy to relate to. Ethan Hawke easily provides the film's best performance, further strengthening his storyline. Cheadle impresses as well, even if his story isn't quite as compelling. As for Gere, he's stuck with the least interesting story, but at least the payoff is strong, so we don't feel like it was all for nothing.

There's a lot to admire here, including some smaller roles provided by Vincent D'Onofrio and Ellen Barkin, but it never quite manages to grab us like it should. A lot of this has to do with how safe the movie ends up playing it. While its depiction of the streets is appropriately gritty (if not narrow-focused), the stories and the things the characters talk about often come across as contrived or cliched. It does just enough so that we're never bored, but doesn't take enough chances so that it can truly stand out. The cross-cutting between the three storylines also comes across as a little gimmicky, but at least it pays off with a surprisingly tense climax that brings all the characters and plots together. Until then, it never quite feels real enough, thanks to the largely stock characters and situations.

Maybe Brooklyn's Finest would have been a better movie if it had focused less on the plot, and more on the one-on-one scenes between the characters. When the characters are just having conversations (such as when Gere's character is riding in a patrol car with a rookie partner), it seems a lot more honest. There's a great scene where Sal is playing poker in his basement with some of his fellow officers, and the whole scene feels like we're getting a glimpse into their lives, and listening to them gripe about the shortcomings of their jobs. It's one of the few moments where we feel like we're actually hearing these people talk, rather than being manipulated by the screenplay. It's moments like these that make you realize that the screenwriter does have some promise, and hope the predictable nature of the plot is only the sign of a first effort, and that he'll challenge himself more next time.

This is ultimately a movie that's not as compelling as it could have been, but it still manages to entertain. If it disappoints at all, it's only because we want the movie to try harder than it is. Hey, at least it is trying. That's more than I can say for a lot of movies currently out there. I'm not saying you need to rush out and see this. But, if you ever see it on TV someday, it will be worth your time.

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