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“Brooklyn’s Finest” has a lot to say and, while it attempts to tell it all in a gritty and realistic way, there are far too many moments and performances that feel more like Hollywood than Brooklyn.
Centered around three New York police officers, Sal (Ethan Hawke) has become corrupt in order to support his nine children and pregnant-with-twins wife; Tango (Don Cheadle) is undercover and attempting to take down drug operations around the Pink Houses, a notorious group of projects, and finally there is Eddie (Richard Gere), a 50-something cop who wrestles with blowing his brains out, but soon will retire from the force, which regards him as a joke. Soon, a friend of Tango’s who saved his life in prison, Caz (Wesley Snipes), is released from the slammer and, driving the plot, Tango’s loyalties are challenged. The main characters’ story lines only occasionally rub shoulders, but all focus on the various depths these lawmen will go to when choosing between loyalties to the badge and to themselves.
While the three leads try their hardest — Gere, a bit too hard — the scenes of action and violence feel like they have been done before and their attempt to illustrate the emotional turmoil of each character seems out of place.
“Finest” is so forthright and unsubtle (we first meet Eddie when he wakes up, takes a shot of whiskey and puts the barrel of a handgun in his mouth) all of the characters seem unrealistic. Adding to the awkwardness are embarrassingly over-the-top supporting turns by Ellen Barkin, as Tango’s boss, and Vincent D’Onofrio, as a drug dealer, that not only sacrifice the authenticity of the picture, but make it seem like a big-screen adaptation of “Law & Order.”
The film is bursting at the seams with story arcs, tones and ideas, but none are developed to proper emotional depths.
“Brooklyn’s Finest” has some things going for it, including good acting by Cheadle and Snipes, as well as a few (mostly blood-related) shocks, but the main characters’ stories are neither compelling nor original enough to warrant being so insignificantly related to each other.
Brooklyn’s Finest
R
Two reels out of four
In area theaters tomorrow
Up in the Air
R
Available Tuesday
A big hit with audiences and critics, director Jason Reitman’s follow-up to his hit “Juno” is every bit as charming as that film, but exponentially more adult.
“Up in the Air” follows corporate down-sizer Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who spends nearly all of his time either on the road or up in the air. The multiple Oscar-nominated film has a witty screenplay and a genuinely human outlook on our quickly changing times.
Before the behemoth “Avatar” dropped worldwide, this film largely was seen as the front-runner at this year’s Oscars and, though none of the featured performers are blue or computer generated, be assured the special effects are the kind generated by the heart.
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