Review of Brooklyn's Finest (2010) by Marshall T — 12 Nov 2012

Director Antoine Fuqua's latest treads a thin line between tragic and gritty and outright depressing. This is a gloomy film to be sure, everyone is either a cop, murderer, drug dealer or prostitute and there is no glimpse of sunshine, so to speak, in Fuqua's Brooklyn.

I am a big fan of Fuqua, from his John Wooesq debut with The Replacement Killers to the classic cop drama Training Day, to the very underrated Bruce Willis war actionier Tears of the Sun, and in my opinion shared by few brillant telling of the round table King Arthur.

His resume has shown time and time again he is more than competent and always brings out solid performances from his leads. Hawk is perhaps the strongest of three leads, but Gere and Cheadle are very convincing in their roles as well.

Unfortunately, despite the admirable development of these characters, the ordinary narrative leaves little question about where their respective paths are headed. We also get a blazing comeback from the one and only Wesley Snipes (who looked like he walked right out of prison onto the set) as a criminal and friend of Cheadle.

Rounding off the talented main players is Showtime's Brotherhood Brian F. O'Byrne as fellow cop and friend and Will Patton as Cheadle's lone remaining contact to the just world he feels is fading away.

Ellen Barkin giving a wonderful performance showing off more balls then half the leads and Vincent D'Onofrio gives a short but sweet opener. As I have iterated many times, it is the stellar work from the key players that makes Brooklyn's Finest worth your time.

If only the despair had been laid on a little less thick and the stereotypes that make up the three main characters polished with a bit more inventiveness, Brooklyn's Finest could have been a classic in the making.

Instead we get only what we would expect; a gritty, bloody and well acted police drama. Brillant film that had potential to be even better.