Brooklyn's Finest employs every cop cliche in the book in a bleak examination of life on the streets for three NYPD officers.

Although their stories only cross paths a few times, each of the main characters grapples with inner demons. Eddie (Richard Gere) is seven days away from retirement and doesn't give a hoot about being a cop anymore. He's a bit of joke among his peers and a scumbag in his personal life -- sleeping with a hooker, drinking too much and contemplating suicide daily. There's Sal (Ethan Hawke), a religious man with too many kids and not enough money to support them, now looking to pinch some extra cash during drug busts. Lastly there's Tango (Don Cheadle), a world-weary undercover cop starting to question which side he's really on.

The three main actors are all Oscar-worthy in this with Cheadle being the frontrunner. You can see his internal struggle in his eyes and on his face. I can't imagine where an actor needs to go emotionally to portray that to the audience in a believable manner but it can't be fun. I was also floored by Ellen Barkin who plays a tough-as-nails FBI agent. Her time onscreen is limited but her performance was powerful and really stuck with me. If there is one reason to see Brooklyn's Finest it's the solid acting throughout.

Director Antoine Fuqua knows how to do a cop drama, there's no question about that. Training Day captured the genre and reinvented it brilliantly. In Brooklyn's Finest he appears to be trying to top that Oscar-winning effort and gets sloppy at times with too many characters and storylines (the introduction of Wesley Snipes's drug-lord character Caz halfway in was totally unnecessary). If the movie had focused solely on one of these characters it could have been a stellar film. Instead it's just okay and is for the most part forgettable.

One thing Brooklyn's Finest did effectively is create a feeling of anxiety. For the first 30 minutes the score didn't let up once and it left me waiting in anticipation for something to happen. It might have oversold the feeling because not much happened for that first 30 minutes. There were also long stretches where the plot slowed to a crawl, and I think I might have seen a few people nodding off in the screening.

For me, and I hate to do this, this is a movie that is better watched at home on your couch on a Sunday afternoon than in the theatre. It shouldn't be avoided but don't put it at the top of your list.

** out of 5 stars

Rated R
Cast: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Official Site IMDb

brian.mckechnie@citynews.rogers.com

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Top image: A scene from Brooklyn's Finest. Courtesy Alliance Films.