Movie Review: Brooklyn's Finest

Interlocking storylines tend to be a risky storytelling technique. Sometimes they work to perfection(Pulp Fiction I don't think there will ever have with better interlocking storylines that work so well in a film ever again) and there have some serious misfires(Vantage Point). Brooklyn's Finest has some good and bad storylines but when interwoven it becomes a mess

The stories of Brooklyn's Finest focus on the lives of 3 different Brooklyn cops. Eddie(Richard Gere) is a cop on the edge of retiring that is bitter and has nothing postive in his life besides his utterly strange realtionship with a prostitute. Sal(Ethan Hawke) is a cop that is going insane about getting the down payment for a new house for his family. The current house he lives is infested with mold and doesn't have room for his expanding family and Sal starts stealing drug money to attempt to pay the down payment and move into his family's dream home. Tango(Don Cheadle) is a cop that has been undercover as a drug dealer for years. He has been begging for a desk job for years to finally get out of the double life he has been living. Due to poor treatment from his police surperiors and his loyality to a drug dealer he has befriended(Wesley Snipes), he is not sure whose side he is on.

Brooklyn's Finest is one of the hardest films to form a clear opinion on in a long time. It is just such a mixed bag of a film. Let me start with the positives, what holds the film up and keeps its interesting is the acting. Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke especially turn in quality performances and characters that you actually identify with and care about. Another thing I liked was where the script was headed in the first half and it had great build up. Sadly the film doesn't really go anywhere in the 2nd half. The stories also vary on how interesting they are. Cheadle's is cleary the best and makes up the best sections of the film. Gere on the other hand has such a dull and uninteresting story I feel like they put in there as filler. A big issue i had with the film was that there are so many plot holes and events the seem important but then are never brought up again for the rest of the film. I also have to say the ending is beyond stupid, lazily written and feels tacked on.

Overall I would say Brooklyn's Finest is a decent film. It has its flaws in the script and Antione Fuqua could have done a better job directing but it is very well acted all around. I expected more simply based on the fact that it was the first crime drama Fuqua had done since Training Day(which one of my favorite films of all time). Fuqua proved that not every crime drama he touches can be a masterpiece. Hopefully he gets back on the right track and makes another masterpiece, I hope he has it in him.

3/5 Stars