Director Antoine Fuqua exploded on to the Hollywood scene a decade back with the critically acclaimed Training Day, which is often considered one of the quintessential cop/crime dramas but ever since has struggled to follow up that hit, releasing a string of mediocre films that never broke out at the box office (see King Arthur, Shooter).
While his latest offering doesn’t necessarily reverse that trend it does at least return Fuqua to the dirty cop genre that made him famous in the first place.
Brooklyn’s Finest is an ensemble police drama headlined by a fine cast including Richard Gere (does this guy ever age?), Don Cheadle and the ever reliable Ethan Hawke (reuniting with Fuqua for the first time since Training Day).
Gere plays Eddie Dugan a burnt out veteran officer a mere 7 days from retirement. He is reluctantly assigned the task of overseeing rookies while patrolling some of the worst areas of the city. Eddie has a less then exemplary service record and has “seen too much”, though we never really get any insight into what in particular is haunting him. He leads a destructive life of drinking whisky for breakfast and his only friend is a hooker with a heart of gold, whom he intends to make an honest woman out of.
Ethan Hawke (Daybreakers) is Sal, a desperate cop who’s turned to stealing drug money in an attempt to provide for his growing family which includes a sick and extremely pregnant wife. How far will Sal go to make ends meet? Will he risk losing it all?
Meanwhile Don Cheadle (Iron Man 2) gets possibly the meatiest role of Clarence “Tango” Butler, an undercover narcotics detective. Tango’s been deep undercover for so long that it’s wound up costing him his marriage and his identity. He’s finally offered a way out by his superiors (an underused Will Patton and a surprisingly wrinkly Ellen Barkin) but it means setting up his close friend Caz (Wesley Snipes with a pony tail), whom he owes his life to. Can Tango go through with sending his good friend back to prison and does he still know whose side he’s really on?
If it all sounds a little familiar, that’s because it is. There is nothing here we haven’t seen before and seen done better. But the one reason the film doesn’t completely fall flat is due to excellent work from the headliners. Gere, who hasn’t been this good in quite some time, is the backbone of the film and it’s the intensity and conviction of his performance in particular that helps gloss over the abundance of cop movie clichés on offer. He lends his scenes some much needed weight, especially during the film’s climax when the three stories come to a head.
Brooklyn’s Finest also marks the cinematic return of Wesley Snipes, whose been languishing in straight to DVD hell for the last six or so years. While there isn’t anything particularly note worthy about his performance, he does share good on screen chemistry with Cheadle, which lends credibility to the pair’s friendship.
Praise should also be directed towards Marcelo Zarvos for his moody score that helps give the film an underlying sense of urgency, often making the film feel more exciting than it actually is.
While Brooklyn’s Finest may not come close to achieving the greatness of Training Day or even manage to restore Antoine Fuqua’s status in Hollywood, it isn’t a bad watch and it will have to do until the next truly great cop/crime drama comes along.
