Brooklyn's Finest

Some directors are versatile, while others seem to work best in a particular environment.  Antoine Fuqua’s premiere milieu seems to be crime, as when he’s stepped outside that, such as with Tears Of The Sun and King Arthur, the results have been less impressive than the likes of Training Day and Shooter.

Brooklyn’s Finest sees him in familiar criminal territory, with a story that revolves around three separate New York cops and the events that eventually bring them together. Eddie (a surprisingly good Richard Gere), is a completely disenchanted patrolman, who’s only got a week until retirement and is counting down the days while swigging whiskey and thinking about killing himself. Then there’s Tango (Don Cheadle), an undercover cop who’s been on assignment too long and is desperate to get out, especially as he now considers the man he’s supposed to bring down (Wesley Snipes) a friend he doesn’t want to betray. Finally we have narcotics cop Sal, a religious man trapped between his ethics and his need to feed and house his growing family. Sal’s desperately in need of money and with all the cash from drug busts lying around the temptation proves too strong, even though he knows it’s wrong.

Fuqua was obviously aiming high with Brooklyn’s Finest, hoping for the same response he got with Training Day, while telling a more complex, interwoven ensemble story. However the problem seems to be that he’s aiming higher than the script could ever deliver, meaning that while there’s some tension and a suitably gritty and often grim mood, it has a tendency towards feeling overblown and overcooked. Fuqua has basically taken what is an okay but pretty clichéd script, and directed it like it was The Departed.

All three cops are living on the edge of the law and trying to regain their humanity and sense of self, while being pushed into situations where Brooklyn’s Finest are so fine anymore. That’s got plenty of potential for a complex tense film, but as you may have realised from the character description above, each cop feels like he’s be taken out of the book of stock characters and dusted down for another go around. That would be fine if the screenplay itself could find the dramatic urgency and sweep that Fuqua is obviously aiming for, but it can only do so in fits and burst. There are some great scenes where it really hints at its potential, but between these Fuqua pushes the drama further than the script can tolerate, making it all a little more implausible than it might otherwise have been.

However, while it is a potboiler that keeps boiling over, it’s still very watchable, with, as mentioned some excellent scenes, good performances (particularly from Hawke), and Fuqua showing that despite over-reaching he has a real knack for gritty urban drama, which feels as it’s delving deep into a world of moral and social ambiguity. It’s just a shame the script doesn’t really match the gravitas the acting and direction goes for.

Overall Verdict: There’s fine acting, excellent individual scenes and taut direction, but they feel as if they’re aiming for a film that’s less clichéd and overblown than Brooklyn’s Finest.

Reviewer: Phil Caine