Would you steal bread to feed your family? As Dwight from The Office would say, "it's a trick question. The bread is poisoned. Also, it's not your real family. You've been cuckolded by a stronger, smarter male." For Sal (Ethan Hawke), a dirty narcotics officer in Brooklyn's Finest, the answer is clear. Only instead of bread, he is stealing drug money and killing anyone who gets in the way. He needs the money because his pregnant wife is sick from the mold in their home so he needs to pay the down payment on another house he is going to buy. Hawke plays the role with great intensity, just as he did in director Antoine Fuqua's previous movie, Training Day. In that he co-starred with Denzel Washington, only Denzel was the dirty cop, and Hawke played the rookie officer who didn't like what he saw. He got an Oscar nomination for that role, but is just as good, if not better, in this movie. Sal is just one of the three conflicted cops who walk a fine line between cop and criminal. One is Eddie (Richard Gere), who is days away from retirement, and has what is probably the most eventful week of his career. His job is to oversee rookies in the mean streets, and sticks a gun in his mouth a couple of times throughout the course of the movie. His only sources of pleasures are his whiskey and frequent visits with a hooker. The other is Tango (Don Cheadle), an undercover cop who is so deep into the criminal life that he struggles with his own identity. He's been asking for a desk job for years and desperately wants out of the drug beat. The only way he can get out and receive a promotion is by betraying a close criminal friend, Caz (Wesley Snipes). The problem with movies like Brooklyn's Finest is that they often fail to add any depth to their characters in the midst of all the mindless violence. But the great acting from Hawke, Gere, and Cheadle separates this one from the crowd, and makes it a watchable action thriller. And while may not be as good as Training Day, it still shows the rough side of being a cop, and that they may not be as innocent as they appear to be.
Review of Brooklyn's Finest
