Caffeinated Clint
By Clint Morris
Edward Norton and Colin Farrell together – sure to be some on-screen fireworks (and off-screen too, I’m assuming?) here, right? Well, yeah, but only in that igniting-a-roman-candle-on-a-damp-surface-sense.
This one’s been sitting on the shelf for a few years now. Not surprisingly – since most of them that do end up with a penalized release date are – it’s a cop movie. And like fellow postponed metal-badge flicks “A Man Apart” (which featured Vin Diesel as a sad-sack cop) and “City by the Sea” (which featured Robert DeNiro as a sad-sack cop), it’s not a very good at that – in fact you’ll see more gripping and original tales on an episode of ‘’Law and Order” (but then that doesn’t have Edward Norton in it as a sad-sack cop now, does it?).
If James Foley had the flu, was dosed up on Robitussin, and had the spent the last week up watching those middle-of-the-night infomercials on TV, this would probably be the result – sort-of a “We Own the Night”-lite with nobody, most notably the director (in this case Gavin O’Connor – who!?), at their best.
One of the final films to come out of old New Line (not surprisingly, Noah Emmerich, brother of the company’s former CEO Toby Emmerich, has a rather sizable role here – just as he’s had in quite a few New Line productions), ‘’Pride and Glory” fixes on a multi-generational Irish-American police family whose moral code is tested when one of two sons (Norton) on the force investigates an inflammable case involving his older brother (Emmerich) and brother-in-law (Farrell). While the quieter, good-guy cop brother makes waves by fingering the dodgy cops, the brother (and brother-in-law in particular) has to decide where his loyalties lie.
The performances aren’t bad – even Jon Voight (stepping in at the 11th hour for Nick Nolte) as the family patriarch, a veteran law-enforcer whose very pro-cop, is pretty good – but one expect a lot more than just meekly-believable performances from the likes of Norton and Farrell.
Norton seems bored, Farrell doesn’t seem to know his character – in fact, his accent (surprisingly, since he’s usually very good at them) slips unconsciously in and out of American and Irish regularly throughout the movie. Someone did tell him this wasn’t his ‘’Daredevil” spin-off, right!?
Emmerich, probably best remembered as the best friends of the title characters in either ‘’Frequency” or ‘’The Truman Show”, may even do a better job than his weightier co-stars – his heart seems to be more into it for a start. But no surprise there, since his brother’s company financed the film and probably had his pinkie promise he’d act his ass off in it if he gave him the fourth-male lead.
Gavin O’Connor and his twin brother, producer Gregory, grew up as the sons of New York Cops, and together with ‘’Smokin Aces”’ writer/director Joe Carnahan developed the story. They obviously know their stuff, and about the police force to make a credible-enough movie, but the film just feels too lazy and, well, too late to make any kind of impression. Maybe it might’ve packed more of a punch in the 70s – or maybe it should’ve been set in the 70s? – before we’d seen those unbeatable cop-efforts from the likes of Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese and William Friedkin.
At the same time, Scorsese’s ‘’The Departed” worked a treat and it didn’t need to be released twenty-five years ago to garner an audience nor make an impression. Why? Because it encompassed such a strong, original script – something this one so conspicuously lacks.
There’s not a beat in here that surprises, not a moment that’s not predicted half-an-hour before, or much of a character-arc for anyone.
It’s a wonder it even got made, let alone attracted the interests of powerhouse actors like Norton and Farrell (Jon Voight would probably do anything for a few bucks. He did “Bratz : The Movie” for Christ’s sake!). The script is a passé mess – good cop vs. bad cop butt heads for ninety-minutes until they ditch their jackets and engage in a fist-fight in a very quiet Irish bar. Yawn – that Bob Shaye should’ve polished and dusted before putting before the cameras.
Entertaining enough but nothing you can’t afford to wait for Cable TV to broadcast before you catch it.
