Edward Norton plays a straight-arrow detective whose investigation of a cop killing leads him back to the force. It’s hardly original, and the storytelling is sloppy and confusing, as the script by brothers Gavin and Gregory O’Connor is little more than a collection of tired clichés. As director, Gavin O’Connor apparently thinks all you need to achieve gritty realism is a non-stop barrage of profanity and shaky handheld camera shots. According to the film’s entry on Wikipedia, the O’Connor brothers’ father was a police officer, and they grew up immersed in that world. That may well be, but apparently their background didn’t give them any experiences to draw upon that we haven’t seen in a dozen other cop movies. There are some decent performances from Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight, but their efforts feel wasted. H
This article appears in Oct 22-28, 2008.