Brooklyn's Finest

“It’s gritty like The Wire!” That was the reasoning behind me seeing Brooklyn’s Finest. Scratch that — it was my friend’s reasoning for me to go see the movie.

Brooklyn’s Finest is the latest film from director Antoine Fuqua. The story is set in the 65th precinct of the New York Police Department, which includes the notorious Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn.

The film follows three different plot lines. Ethan Hawke plays Sal Procida, a devout Catholic detective who steals money from drug raids to provide for his family during tough times. Richard Gere plays Officer Dugan, a less-than-clean veteran cop with a week left before retirement. Don Cheadle portrays Clarence “Tango” Butler, an undercover detective who desperately wants out of the dangerous drug dealer scene in the Brownsville projects.

My main problem with the movie was with its lack of originality. Ethan Hawke’s story is of the clichéd “good cop doing bad things for good causes.” Richard Gere’s plot is of the stereotypical “miserable police officer with nothing else to live for.” Don Cheadle’s tale is, for all intents and purposes, the same as The Departed. And, frankly, The Departed is much better.

To be fair, there were a few things about the movie that I did like. The main cast’s performances were great. Brooklyn’s Finest marks the first time in a while that Richard Gere doesn’t play his typical charming-older-man character. Instead, his character is an ornate old man who is a terrible person with only a prostitute for a friend, and not a cutesy one like Julia Roberts.

One thing that bothered me about the movie was the appearance Hawke’s character. It was not the actual personality of the character or the way he was depicted — as both his sympathetic and evil sides were shown — but just the way he looked. Sal is profusely sweating and looks like crap throughout the entire movie without anyone ever fully explaining why. Although this may seem like a trite complaint, it’s very distracting to see a room full of normal-looking cops in a room before Sal rolls in covered in sweat and looking like dirt for no apparent reason.

I’m not knocking any members of the cast for their performances, for they were all on point. With an excellent cast and an enticing trailer, one would think that Brooklyn’s Finest would easily be one of Antoine Fuqua’s best. Sadly, it’s less like Training Day, and more like King Arthur. The story lacked spark and didn’t convey as strong of a message as the trailers had it seem.

That is not to say that this film — arguably a stereotypical model of the genre — will be the end of “gritty.” “It’s gritty like The Wire!” Perhaps so, but it’s not as good — and definitely not worth $9.

- By Rob Molster