High Ranking Performances... Cop-Out Plot!

Rating: 7/10 (19 August 2002)

LAPD Officer Jake Hoyt (Hawke) wants to make a difference on the streets, so he attempts to join the tough, harsh world of the plain-clothes Narcotics Department. To succeed in this, he has to endure a training day on the job and convince the Narc's chief street officer, Detective Alonzo Harris (Washington), that he has what it takes. A difficult enough job for anyone, but Detective Harris has one or two skeletons in his closet, and today they've all decided they're claustrophobic!
Firstly. The acting of the two leads is top-notch. Washington might have won the Oscar for the showier part but Hawke matches him all the way in what is actually a more demanding journey. 90% of the movie concentrates on these two almost completely in isolation and they deliver through-out; a couple of moving, confrontational scenes at the heart of the film being exceptionally executed.
Secondly. The film does not have the courage of it's convictions. Initially it is almost plotless - and all the better for it. Harris takes his rookie on a roller-coaster of 'street justice' and, despite the latter's consternation, the pivotal moments are so well handled and the dialogue of argument in the mouth of Harris so persuasive that his apparent immorality is never as clear-cut as it should be. Had the entire film followed this path, we could well have been left with an intriguing debate on 21st Century urban justice and a refreshing reflection on the idea of 'right' and 'wrong'. The film, of course, does nothing of the sort. It's made in Hollywood after all! No, almost exactly half-way through, we are introduced to a no-brainer plot involving the Russian mafia (oh dear!) and Harris stops breaking the rules because he firmly believes this is the only way to maintain street law, and starts breaking them because he is suddenly a very bad man! Unbelievable plot twists follow hard by and we are taken into a different, disappointing, cliched nonsense of a film in which (among several lame developments) the residents of a lethal neighbourhood ghetto suddenly develop a collective, moral consciousness. The very ending is awful beyond words and if it's a nod to Penn's Bonnie and Clyde it's an offensively crude one!
It is to the two leads' credit than that, as crassly predictable as the film becomes, it remains very watchable because of their inspired playing. And for that - it is worth a few hours of anybody's time.