GC Movie Review - Brooklyn’s Finest

Rated: R – For bloody violence throughout, strong sexuality, nudity, drug content and pervasive language
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Thriller and Crime/Gangster
Theatrical Release: Mar 5, 2010 Wide
Starring: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Screenwriter: Michael C. Martin, Brad Kane
Runtime: 1hr 48 mins.

Synopsis: With personal and work pressures bearing down on them and in the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed as they each face daily tests of judgment and honor by their involvement in a massive drug operation in Brooklyn’s Finest, a searing new crime drama from acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day).

While preparing for the screening of Brooklyn’s Finest, the new crime drama by famed director Antoine Fuqua, I was excited by the sheer thought of Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes and Richard Gere starring in the same film. How infectious? It almost didn’t matter the storyline the combination of these three powerful actors intrigued me. I will later rethink this frame of thought.

The film takes us on a journey of three everyday police officers from the crime infested 65th Precinct in Brooklyn, NY. Each must endure what we all endure on a daily basis and realize that each day we are given a second chance to get it right and that, “LIFE IS ABOUT CHOICES.” Whether we choose to love, hate, deceive, betray, steal, lie, manipulate, forgive, tell the truth; these choices, we must ultimately, live or die with.

Initially, we meet Officer Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere, Amelia and Internal Affairs) who’s got about 7 days before he’s off to retirement fishing in Connecticut. He’s not a highly praised officer, but he’s kept his proverbial nose clean and wants to wash his hands of the internal death that he’s been slowly dying from in this dangerously dilapidating job. His breakfast consists of whiskey and another opportunity to put the barrel of his gun in his mouth, pull the trigger and see what happens. He’s resolved to die or begrudgingly deal with another day as a cop. With a wife who has left him, he’s resorted to making Chantel, a hooker (Shannon Kane – Blood and Bone) his steady. Disillusioned at the prospects, Dugan believes that he can get her to leave her trade and live with him in Connecticut.