Pride and Glory
December 5th 2008 15:14
Plain poster, plain story
Gavin O'Connors dirty cop drama Pride and Glory is like an old record, but one that wasn't the best even back in its day. Backdraft infused in L.A. Confidential. It has it's values, but somehow still lacking. Not enough memorable moments, and an obviously predictable storyline.
If you think about it, most mainstream movies are predictable. Those who let you forget this are the good ones. This flick tries but not hard enough, nor good enough.
Brother-in-laws in hard times
The story is about two generation of cops in New York, with presumed Irish ancestry. Edward Norton plays Ray, the somewhat prodigal son, who's not in "the task force" at the start, but is soon convinced to rejoin the narcotics division by his retired policeman father Francis Sr. (Jon Voight, with the best performance in the mediocre palette). Ray soon finds himself in the investigation of a quadruple cop murder case, that leads to the uneasy waters of police corruption and good cop, bad cop situation. Francis Jr. (Noah Emmerich) is a soon to be detective task force leader, who tries to hover between Ray's world of right and the grey moral area of the rest of the task force. Jimmy Egan, an ambitious and energetic policeman (Colin Farrell) seems like the third son, but is really the husband of Megan (Lake Bell) the third sibling of the Tierney family. Her role is to connect Jimmy to the story. Unfortunately her questionable role isn't the only element that feels like a plotfiller (just think about the conditions of a certain lynching scene, I mean come on!).
Without spoiling it, drama is assured, both outside and within family, and in the end we learn once again: good prevails, the bad guys get what they deserve. Nothing too complicated for the average moviegoer's digestion. At the same time nothing too much to think about either.
What could have been a clever and exciting movie in the style of Michael Mann became a slightly above average cop drama, with a forgettable plot and characters. For veteran moviegoers there is really not much in it, and it's certainly not an action flick to satisfy the visual needs. I guess it depends on the person, but I don't see this becoming a classic like Heat.
6 out of 10.
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