Seen it all before (Narc (DVD))

Member Name: sandrabarber

Product:	Narc (DVD)
Date:	14/02/04 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: well acted, well directed

Disadvantages: stereotypical characters, predictable story

The movie ?Narc? has pretty good credentials. Produced by Tom Cruise, screenwritten and directed by Joe Carnahan (Mission Impossible 3), and starring Jason Patric and Ray Liotta, it is a cop movie that harps back to such 70?s classics as ?Serpico? and ?The French Connection?.

It is based loosely on a true story about the murder of a Dallas police officer which was the subject of an acclaimed documentary called ?The Thin Blue Line?.


THE PLOT

Nick Tellis (Patric) gets suspended from the Detroit police force after a pregnant woman is tragically shot at a drug bust he?s in charge of. He spends his days looking after his baby son while his wife is out at work, and torturing himself by reliving the horrible shooting incident day after day. He does not want to return to the force, but does not know what else to do with his life. His wife does not want him to return to the force under any circumstances.

So, he is the cop we have seen so many times in films ? the tormented, sensitive yet tough one, the one who?s seen and done too much, the one who has the police force running through his veins. And, like all cops of his genre, his work causes him trouble at home.

Some time after his suspension he is called before a review board and asked to help crack a particularly difficult and sleazy case where another officer was murdered. He is told that if he does this one job, all charges against him will be dropped and he can return to the force with a nice, unstressful desk job.

The murdered cop?s partner and leader of the investigation is Detective Henry Oak (Liotta), the archetypal old timer with no idealism, a past full of dirty deals, a violent temper and a get-stuck-in approach.

Hence we have the standard anti-buddy partnership as the two opposites are forced into an uneasy alliance. Both have the same aims, but their means of attaining them come from opposite moralities.

As the investigation pr
ogresses the pair go deeper and deeper into the narcotics underworld, and the tension and dirtiness of the job starts to jangle Tellis?s nerves. This in turn causes more trouble at home, which in turn causes more trouble at work etc. etc.

The partners eventually zone in on two likely suspects, drug dealers who ply their trade from a grubby little chop shop.

Oak browbeats a confession from the two, but it is soon apparent that they are not the guilty parties as the much darker truth begins to come to light and threatens to destroy both officers.


THE ACTING

Liotta does a good nut case, and ?Narc? is no exception. I can?t explicitly criticise his performance, but can only say that we?ve seen it all before.

Patric is also very good as Tellis, but again, the confines of the character give him nothing new or different to experiment with and show us.

Elsewhere the singer Busta Rhymes pops up and gives a solid, though again predictable, depiction of a dealer.


THE DIRECTION

Carnahan does the best he can with his own well-written but rather hackneyed plot. He makes great use of lighting to produce a general feeling of grime and depression all around, which nicely mirrors Tellis?s inner state and the soiled world in which he is working.

The pace is kept reasonably swift and the rather boring domestic scenes are kept good and short.

Pace is lifted as the movie rushes to its exciting, though unsurprising, climax.


OVERALL

?Narc? is not a bad film. It is well acted and has a gritty 70?s atmosphere which I really liked.

The trouble with it is that it is utterly predictable, and thus the elements of shock, surprise and tension ? on which such films rely ? really don?t work.

I didn?t hate the film, but I certainly didn?t love it. I don?t regret spending 1 hour 47 minutes of my life watching it, but neither am I glad I did.

The movi
e was a hit with most critics, but for me it was neither a hit nor a miss.

Do I recommend it, then? The answer is: I don?t know. But I?d certainly say rent it rather than buy it.


OTHER INFO

Made by Paramount Pictures, 2002
Available at amazon.co.uk for £11.99

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