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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 47.78%
Worth A Look: 31.11%
Average: 13.33%
Pretty Bad: 3.33%
Total Crap: 4.44%
6 reviews, 54 user ratings
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| Narc |
by Stephen Groenewegen
"Cop out"
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In wintry Detroit, the detectives all sport bushy goatees and handlebar moustaches to help fend off the cold. Narc is set in the same graffiti and hip-hop neighbourhood as Eminem’s 8 Mile. There isn’t much warmth to this gritty, independent cop thriller, written and directed by Joe Carnahan (1998’s Blood Guts, Bullets and Octane). There isn’t much colour, either.Carnahan, cinematographer Alex Nepomniaschy and production designer Greg Beale opt for a tried and true palette of rainy, washed-out greys. Partly, I suspect, in homage to 1970s drug detective dramas like The French Connection and Serpico, to which Narc is a throwback. Handheld camerawork is a staple of police drama nowadays, and heavily overused here. I also tired quickly of Carnahan’s penchant for framing his characters through windscreens, split screens, glass windows and mirrors.
What lifts Narc above the average violent crime drama is the solid testosterone-fuelled performances from two largely unsung actors. Jason Patric is Nick Tellis, an undercover narcotics cop (“narc”) whose immersion in the drug culture has clouded his judgment and resulted in a messy incident and his suspension from the force. Tellis is given the chance to redeem his record if he can use his underworld contacts to nab the murderer of another narc, Calvess (Alan Van Sprang). We witness Calvess’ execution-style killing - frequently - in grainy flashback.
Tellis teams himself with Henry Oak (Ray Liotta), Calvess’ former partner. Liotta stacked on the beef to play the bear-like Oak. Now a widower with nothing to lose, Oak’s heavy-handed tactics have earned him a 93% conviction rate and a reputation for instability. He’s “swinging a big stick”, one police colleague wryly remarks. Surprisingly, Liotta’s Oak is hot-tempered but no livewire. The characterisation is meaty and realistic, without being flashy or especially memorable.
Narc’s story twists and turns to disguise the motive and man behind Calvess’ death until the climactic lengthy warehouse showdown. By then, the plot has become too complicated for its own good. The final scene descends into overwrought soap opera, with two men shouting and waving guns at each other.It’s yet another example of the cop drama clichés that Narc embraces too enthusiastically. There’s also the frustrated wife who walks out, the cop who believes in right and wrong rather than rules and regulations, a rooftop chase, police corruption, the revelatory confidential file and a dying confession. The accumulation of clichés gradually becomes wearying, detracting from an otherwise efficiently moody and serious-minded thriller.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=6186&reviewer=104
originally posted: 07/28/03 13:48:40
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2002 Sundance Film Festival. For more in the 2002 Sundance Film Festival series, click here.
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USA
20-Dec-2002 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
14-Aug-2003
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