Review:
Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn’s Finest is the latest film by director Antoine Fuqua, an ensemble piece that returns to the director’s favourite subject of police corruption. Forming something of a trilogy with his previous films Training Day and Shooter, Brooklyn’s Finest takes a dark look at what it is like to be out on the street as a cop in New York’s biggest suburb.

The film follows the exploits of three different characters, each of which follows his own arc through the film, with their stories only tangentially colliding at the end. Sal (played by Ethan Hawke) is a highly strung police officer and father of four who, with twins on the way and a sick wife to look after, is so desperate for a way out that he decides that stealing drug money from police busts is his only solution. Tango (played by Don Cheadle) is an undercover cop who has spent so long on the street that the dealers he’s come to know are like his family, and he balks at the prospect of turning them in. Eddie (played by Richard Gere) is so disillusioned by his work on the beat that he puts a gun in his mouth every morning; he sleepwalks through his last few days on the job before his retirement and his only solace being the arms of a young prostitute who services police officers.

As you may have gathered this is pretty bleak stuff, and the film almost revels in its own teetering despair. The first rookie cop that the department forces Eddie to take out with him is murdered for his dedication to his work, and the second rookie’s lack of experience simply drives fear into the people that the force is trying to protect. The department’s pay is so low and his family’s situation so appalling that you can’t help but empathise with Sal’s decision to steal the money he needs. Tango’s superiors are so smug and self-righteous that you can fully understand why he might choose to turn his back on them. The film might be painted in shades of grey, but they are all shades of very dark grey.

The film is held together by great performances from all three leads. Ultimately a character study of sorts it’s difficult to fathom a deeper message than simply that a New York cop’s life is pretty grim and that tackling crime in the city is an almost hopeless task. Optimism does not prevail in the same manner as Fuqua’s previous efforts, and there is no trace of the machismo of Training Day or the gung-ho action of Shooter here. The only positively framed character is Ronny (played by Brian F O’Byrne) who tries desperately to prevent Sal’s slide into corruption. Although Eddie redeems himself a little at the end, given the state of his life it doesn’t feel like much of a victory. If anything the predominant character in the film is New York itself, which comes across as an endless urban sprawl so crime-ridden that the police’s attempts to do their jobs seem woefully inadequate.