Box Office: Pride and Glory [2008]
Oct. 26, 2008
Released 10/24/08
2 hr. 5 min.
R
Gavin O’Connor/ New Line Cinema
Edward Norton
Colin Ferrell
Jon Voight
Noah Emmerich
Family of cops. New York City. Lead cop is on the brink of divorce. Police corruption represented through involvement in drug trade and payoffs. Women in the film are cop wives. Cop mothers. Cop sisters. Lead cop hasn’t been on the streets in years. Reasons for this are “mysterious.” Once back he retains his oracle-like powers. Corrupt cops get away with murder. Literally. In the end good trumps evil.
You may find yourself looking for the familiar kitchen sink.
And that’s a shame, really. When a film boasts Edward Norton, Colin Ferrell, and Jon Voight, you hope–or even assume–that it has to be worthwhile. For ten, fifteen minutes you are in fact involved with a worthy piece of cinema unfolding before your eyes. The direction, the acting, the in medias res–all of it firing in synch. And then the plot shows up. The plot in these types of cop films has become more familiar than the back of your hand, and just as cliche.
And that begs the question you will ask yourself when two hours have slid by and the lights come up. Is this a film that gave you anything new? Anything there you might take away from it? Or has the bar dropped so low that our only requirement is to be entertained. And if so, were you? This is where Pride and Glory gets sticky. The film is, on that level, quite watchable. The director, Gavin O’Connor, is well enough versed in Sidney Lumet’s ouevre to know how to keep your interest. He, like Lumet, is particularly adept at controlling pace. The film is slow and measured when need be, frantic and jolting when necessary. Under such capable direction the very capable can act. Norton, and in certain scenes Voight, do just that. But the actor in tune with the Lumet spell is the relatively unknown Noah Emmerich. He is a scene stealer, and will yet go unnoticed to those looking for (but not finding) headliner Ferrell to carry the film.
The music is very worth listening to. The score features a haunting classical guitar piece against a lushly shot serviceman funeral procession. But the real unsung star of the film may be New York City. Remember when cop films showed cops out on the streets? Entering warehouses and basement stores and parking against the towering backdrops of the empire state? In Pride and Glory, talented director of photography Declan Quinn (Leaving Las Vegas, Vanity Fair) has brought New York in as a major character–in all its filth and beauty.
In the end it is simply a familiar cop film. A morality play. Nothing more. Perhaps all you can really expect when talking to an old friend is a familiar conversation.
Bottom Line: 3.0/5.0