Featured Movies
Partners
Dark BlueIt's no surprise to see the name of David Ayer credited as the writer of Dark Blue. The man who wrote the ostensibly similar Training Day would seem to have cornered the market when it comes to churning out gritty, LA-set cop dramas. That the story originated from Ayer's spiritual uncle James Ellroy seems all the more appropriate. What is shocking is that the director is Ron Shelton, famed for sports films like Bull Durham and White Men Can't Jump. While he once bared his teeth for the bitter baseball biopic Cobb, Shelton rarely goes for the jugular.
But in this tale of corruption and confession, he does. Using the announcement of the Rodney King trial verdict as a backdrop, Shelton twists the cop genre in on itself to produce a thoughtful thriller showcasing not only Ayer's tough-as-nails dialogue but a series of career-best performances from the stars.
Like Denzel Washington's Oscar-winning detective in Training Day, Kurt Russell's veteran cop, Eldon Perry, is a compelling and complex creation. Along with his innocent partner Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman), he's a puppet for top cop Jack Van Meter (an excellent Brendan Gleeson). When the pair investigate a quadruple murder at a convenience store, they soon figure out the killers - only to find they are two snitches of Van Meter's. Told to frame two other suspects, Keough begins to understand the disturbing reality of police procedure. With Deputy Chief Arthur Holland (Ving Rhames, on sensational form) attempting to bring the crooked Van Meter down, Keough becomes the means with which to trap him while Perry begins to suffer his own crisis of conscience.
As formulaic as it sounds, Shelton ensures the film never lapses into clich?©. Recreating scenes from the LA riots with unnerving accuracy, Dark Blue balances action with intellect, ultimately emerging as an acute character study. With his wife Sally (Lolita Davidovich) on the verge of leaving him, the figure of Eldon Perry, as embodied by Russell, is a shattered one, broken by his own behaviour over the years.
|
