Narc | Review

Uncover cop flick is a thrilling ride.

Best intentions? With the scales of justice, cops are judged for their actions by their peers, families and society. Joe Carnahan’s brings to the screen a dark and murky colored story about good cops doing bad things, except it is offered up in two quite distinct forms. When people think of indie hits and point to Greek Wedding they should be pointing to this find out who’s the cop killer feature instead.

With a violently jittery camera, this film literally bolts out of the gates with a chase sequence that rings a bell of familiarity from all those ‘Cops’ episodes that pollute the television airwaves and from the throwback cop tales in 70’s cinema such as Bullitt and The French Connection. Judging by his past, Nick Tellus (Jason Patric-Your Friends & Neighbors) could sure use a lucky break but if he wants to collect more paychecks for his family while classifying folders he’s got to go out on the streets just one more time. While wrestling his personal demons, the character with an amazing moustache feels that the quickest way to a desk job is by perhaps play by the rule books of morality. His assigned new buddy Hutch…a.k.a Det. Henry Oak (Ray Liotta-Blow) is everything but the good cop,-he gets the job done but the air in Detroit must make people with badges those their grips. In the first act, the plot digs deep into the protagonist’s psyche and his semi-tormented life and the second act sets us up for some of the traditional detective work that leads to loose ends with a connect the dot narrative to give us a final that mirrors the intro with gunshots getting fired and people’s lives getting destroyed and we are left with the ultimate question of will our cop finally fly straight?.

Carnahan’s uses a rather affective series of hand-held shots to give a certain rawness appeal to the flick, and with a good balance between atmospheric style and a story that might still contain some surprises (I wasn’t expecting the newborn to play such a role in character description) even when the element of surprise is text-book designed. Where Carnahan’s primary concern lies in is the feel of the film and the pacing of the picture which is complemented by some off-beat angle shots. Narc gives us the under-appreciated Jason Patric in excellent form, delivering a solid performance as a decayed cop and Liotta in a role that sees him age 20 years, looks like a cop that has seen enough to last 3 lifetimes.

This is a breath of fresh air into the good cop/bad cop genre of film that has had a large number of unimaginative efforts, Narc is not perfect by any means but for a film this size and with the right ambition he certainly packs the right punch. The last picture in the genre-like to blow Sundance off its hinges was Reservoir Dogs, I think that this film will put Joe Carnahan on the map.

Rating 3.5 stars