Review of Brooklyn's Finest (2010) by Justin V — 09 Jan 2012

Director Antoine Fuqua returns with a gritty police drama that is stark, brutal and somewhat moving. Similar in scope to his previous directorial effort, 2001â??s Training Day, Finest follows three different police officers, each at different points in their lives and careers. What pulls them together are the similarly shocking actions they perform in order to achieve results. And those results, unfortunately, can spit in the face of morally righteous individuals.

Start with Detective Sal Procida (Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke), a narcotics officer whoâ??s having trouble providing for his family. Married with seven children, he and wife Angela (Lili Taylor, Starting Out in the Evening) are expecting twins. The home they currently reside in has become too small for the family and there is a mold problem developing that is having a negative effect on Angelaâ??s & the unborn twinsâ?? health. Sal is already making moves to buy a new home but heâ??s already past due on the down payment. With every drug bust that he makes the leftover cash left for evidence becomes increasingly tempting for Sal to take for himself.

Officer Eddie Dugan (Golden Globe winner Richard Gere) is a week away from retirement. In his mind heâ??s already done as a cop and is just looking to stay out of trouble. Heâ??s lonely and wages a personal battle with the bottle and his sanity, while his only friend is a prostitute whom he frequents. His last week on the job is complicated when a new program that teams up rookie cops with veterans essentially has him babysitting a reckless officer looking to, â??make a difference.â??

Finally, Detective â??Tangoâ?? Butler (Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle) is working undercover. Heâ??s been on the down-low for so long that his loyalties have begun to wane. The work heâ??s already put in merits a promotion and the pressures that heâ??s feeling both at home and at work has him begging for a desk job. His superiors agree to his demands on the condition that he turn over notorious drug dealer, Caz (Wesley Snipes, the Blade trilogy). Caz was in prison with Tango and are close friends, and because of that Tangoâ??s loyalties are put to the ultimate test.

Brooklynâ??s Finest can easily be seen as a companion piece to Fuquaâ??s previous directorial effort, Training Day. With both films, Fuqua likes to dig into the general responsibilities of a police officer and likes to present the moral conflict that one may come across. Training Day was very good about presenting the â??good cop/bad copâ?? scenario and it succeeded from that aspect, thanks to great performances from both Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Hawke. The variance here is Fuquaâ??s attempt to present not just one, but three separate yet conflicted cops. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control, the hapless environment that is Brooklynâ??s BK projects (and simply, poor judgment), a happy solution doesnâ??t seem possible.

All around, the performances are incredible. No actor here is over-the-top, and plays each role as is-necessary. Ethan Hawke has become quite adept at playing the stressed-out male. Every time you see Hawke onscreen he looks like he hasnâ??t slept in days and is ready to explode. It looks awful and great at the same time, and I canâ??t think of another actor who can do that this well. Gereâ??s role is a bit of departure from past characters because from recent memory he never seems to play hapless. Gere adjusts well here and his desperation and indifference is exactly whatâ??s needed to convey the role. Itâ??ll be interesting to see the type of roles he gets in the future. Finally, Don Cheadle is simply Don Cheadle. In my opinion heâ??s the best actor of the bunch and played the toughest role. His Tango Butler has to be convincing not just to the audience but also to the people heâ??s looking to bust. He does it well on both counts.

The biggest problem, though, with this film is the apathy that I believe that the audience will have towards these characters. I found none the characters likeable and because of that anything that happened to them, good or bad, really bore no weight. The most likeable to character in the film, surprisingly, is Caz. Caz is clearly a bad guy but ironically he has solid heart and seemingly looked to get out of the drug game altogether. Snipes is also very convincing in this role and he looked like he channeled a more mature, remorseful Nino Brown (a role Snipes played in 1991â??s New Jack City). Regardless, to find a bad guy likeable is not ideal, and the emotional impact towards the filmâ??s conclusion is lessened because of it.

Overall, Brooklynâ??s Finest is a fine film to see for the performances. It is also a decent cautionary tale pointing out the ills and evils attached with being a cop. With so much immoral and illegal activity going on in this film itâ??s tough to view. But unfortunately it doesnâ??t seem like one that a viewer has to view. Brooklynâ??s Finest is another police drama that falls just shy of being a memorable one.