Standard gangster film made good by performances and occasionally brilliant directing

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2007)

A biopic about a drug dealer starring Washington, Crowe, and Scott. Thank God for the Oscars. It is wonderful seeing two actors with such brilliance (both have appeared in several films already this year; guess dominating the Oscar races makes for steady employment in Hollywood) and a good director to guide them through their material.
The movie suffers a little from having two such big movie stars in one film. This is mostly Frank Lucas's story, and I didn't really get to know him as much as I would have liked. Russel Crowe plays a police officer who seems to have a crummy family life just to give him a fatal flaw. Russel Crowe is the right man to play him, injecting a good deal of street sense intelligence into him and making him gruff enough to counter his role as the purer-than-driven-snow cop.
Without giving too much away, I will say that the most effective scene in the movie is when the two meet for the first time. This scene left me shaking with emotion, not because the scene hasn't been played out in thousands of gangster/caper movies, or because of the soundtrack which has played in thousands more. Seeing these two characters for the first time is so well shot that there is a potency and mystery in simply these two men just staring at each other.
The movie is not without flaws though. One key part of the story is the corrupt nature of the NYPD Special Narcotics Unit. However, the point-man for this part of the story seems strangely insulated from the rest of the story. He does a lot of generally sleazy things and makes a few hazy threats at Denzel and Crowe, but doesn't inject himself in enough to make the payoff entirely satisfying. Also, while the courtroom scenes involving the Crowe character's divorce are brief, my suspicion is they would have been more interesting on the cutting room floor, especially if they had made room for more scenes involving Lucas's rough edges. My guess is even the most stylish gangster in Harlem wouldn't be as smooth as Mr. Washington.