Review of Homicide: The Movie (2000) by Megan O — 05 Jul 2010

Despite peppering his screenplay with too many unprovoked racial slurs (in an attempt to be "gritty" and "scathing," I assume), and therefore undermining any believability in his characters, David Mamet's Homicide is a pretty interesting and well-acted cop story.

The plot goes something like this: A Jewish police detective reluctantly gets roped into the case of a slain Jewish woman and investigates the alleged hate crime, while simultaneously learning more about his personal and ethnic identities.

Sounds like a pretty good episode of Law and Order (RIP!), to me. Unfortunately, the racial stuff struck me a bit sophomoric, too transparent, too prevalent. I realize that one of Mamet's main objectives was to comment on race, identity, self-persecution, and perception; however, I wish it was done with a bit more subtlety.

The dialogue is rather stagy (but that's not a surprise, coming from Mamet), but I appreciate the straight-forwardness of the story telling. It's not without its faults, but Homicide is a pretty entertaining and tense film, another solid effort from Mamet.