“Brooklyn’s Finest” Review: Urban Crime Thriller Is Just Fine

Image copyright Overture Films

Let’s just get this out of the way now:  I love “The Wire.”  I have watched every episode of that now-concluded HBO show several times over, own all five seasons on DVD, and consider the series as a whole to be not just one of my favorite TV shows but one of my favorite storytelling experiences in any medium.

I bring this up because–well, because I like to talk about “The Wire” every chance I get, and because “Brooklyn’s Finest” invites “Wire” parallels in a number of ways.  There’s the cast (which features a few “Wire” actors in supporting roles, including Michael K. Williams, who played code-bound stickup artist Omar Little), the subject matter (urban crime), and the separate-but-converging-plot-threads structure.

Not surprisingly, these similarities are only skin deep.  Unlike “The Wire,” “Brooklyn’s Finest” isn’t trying to break new ground; it’s a Shakespearean tragedy transplanted into a gritty New York context a la Sidney Lumet.  It’s “The Departed,” but with Yankees fans.  However, it’s also executed with enough craft and energy to avoid seeming stale, at least for the most part.

The plot follows three Brooklyn cops, none of whom you’d want to trade places with. Sal (Ethan Hawke) has taken to murdering and robbing criminals in order to provide for his numerous children and ailing wife; Eddie (Richard Gere) is a friendless, burnt-out hack who’s counting the days to retirement; and Tango (Don Cheadle) is desperately trying to get out of the undercover operation he’s working inside a housing project drug gang.

The screenplay was written by a New York City transit worker named Michael C. Martin, who structures his story and scenes with a first-timer’s scrupulous conventionality.  Still, the well-drawn characters and agile dialogue just barely prevent the film from feeling overwritten.  The three subplots are never interwoven as much as they could or should be, and the balance of the narrative occasionally shifts too much towards one or another, but each is engaging in its own right.  It helps that the cast members all put in good performances.  Hawke is particularly convincing, and Gere successfully submerges his movie-star glamor to portray a self-loathing, slouching shell of a man.

The visual style developed by director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”) and cinematographer Patrick Murguia is, in a word, grainy.  Occasionally too grainy, but for the most part striking and appropriate to the down-and-dirty material.  Several aerial shots provide breathtaking views of Brooklyn’s sprawling project towers.

Despite the grittiness of the visuals, it would be a stretch to call the film realistic.  In real life cops don’t kill people as often as they do in this movie, nor are cops killed as often or as inconsequentially.  The ending is also a little abrupt (apparently because part of it was cut out after the Sundance premiere), and, while not totally unsatisfying, may leave some viewers wondering what the movie’s point was.

I’ll tell you:  The point of “Brooklyn’s Finest” is to be entertained for two hours.  If you want something more substantive than that, perhaps I could recommend a certain TV show…

About Matt Hoffman

Matt Hoffman (COM/CAS '10) is a film writer for the Quad, and is currently majoring in Film and International Relations at BU. His writing can also be found at Pegleg Spinners, Super Tuesdays and Mania.com. He grew up in Connecticut and is not a pro BMX biker.

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