The Tierneys are a tight-knit multi-generational police family, who live for and love their jobs with the New York Police Department. Wait. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Oh, it will.
Francis Snr (Jon Voight ), the alcoholic patriarch, is a highly regarded, retired police chief who prides himself on the accomplishments of his two officer sons Frank Jr (Noah Emmerich ) and Ray (Edward Norton ), and his son-in-law Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell ).
Ray, the protagonist of the film, is a former narcotics agent who has been relegated to a low-ranking desk job. Struggling to settle into a position he hates and a life without the woman he loves, Ray finds himself caught up in the middle of a case of tug-of-war, after four officers are murdered during a drug bust gone bad and he suspects his brothers are involved.
Facing a crisis of conscience, Ray must decide whether to take part in another cover up, the first of which cost him his high-profile position and his wife, or risk tearing apart the family and the precinct he loves. Ah, now there’s the familiarity.
Slow to start, the action picks up in the second half of the film, and is intriguing enough to keep the audience thoroughly engaged for just over two hours. It is now, however, that you realise how fortunate the film is to be blessed with a stellar cast (which includes Farrell in one of his best played roles in years ), because this is when it all starts to unfold with frightening predictability. The good cop-bad cop drama will never grow old, it is a story that has been told a hundred times before and will be told a hundred times more, but adding new excitement to the plot is a must, and unfortunately, other than a twist of fate ending there is little else here we haven’t already seen countless times already. You might as well stay home and rent Serpico.
That said, it is a believable, well-crafted film, that is enjoyable even if predictable. It is a good film with a great cast. Which is a shame really, because it could have been great film with a great cast.
