At the Movies: 'Narc'
Fri Dec 20,10:37 AM ET
By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writer
Amid the spectacle and sentimentality that overwhelm the multiplexes every holiday season, the gaudy prestige pictures meant to win over audiences and Oscar voters alike, "Narc" arrives like a piece of cold steel smacked against your unsuspecting temple.
Feel the sting. Taste the blood. If you can't stomach it, "Narc" is not for you. But among the steely of constitution — those who don't mind violence and bleakness as long as they serve a story worth telling — this one's going to be talked about.
It defies the formula that's governed cop movies for the last 20 years or so: Two partners, one straight man and one live wire, trading barbs and jibes, breaking the rules, exasperating their superiors and hauling in the bad guys in spectacular fashion. The aesthetic: big, dumb and loud.
In turning for his inspiration to cop movies of the '70s, such as "The French Connection" and "Serpico," 32-year-old writer-director Joe Carnahan turns the recent formula on its ear. "Narc" is small, smart and — well, it's still loud.
Set in Detroit, the movie opens with undercover narcotics officer Nick Tellis (Jason Patric (news)) chasing down a suspected dealer. Nick, who's been using drugs to maintain his cover, shoots a pregnant woman, who subsequently loses her baby.
Eighteen months later, the furor over Nick's actions has been replaced by another outrage: the unsolved slaying of another undercover narc. With leads in the case drying up, desperate police officials turn to Nick, baiting him with the cushy job of his choice if he consults on the murder investigation.
Nick quickly realizes that if he's going to get anywhere, he'll have to work with Lt. Henry Oak (Ray Liotta (news)), the slain officer's former partner, who has been pulled off the case because of his volatility. (When we meet him, he's pummeling a handcuffed suspect with a billiard ball inside a sock.)
In the conflict between Tellis and Oak, "Narc" dramatizes the difficulty of getting to the truth when the circumstances surrounding a policeman's death are in doubt. The pressure grows for Tellis as he blasphemously suggests that the dead cop may not have been a saint or a martyr.
While arguing persuasively that investigating a comrade's death brings out the worst in police officers, Carnahan remains sympathetic to law enforcement. He understands both the damage bullets can do to bodies and the toll police work takes on family life.
As the case inches forward, Carnahan creates a mood of gloomy foreboding, with a few stylistic nods to Steven Soderbergh (news) — the stark, blue-tinged cinematography that also gave Detroit a steely chill in "Out of Sight," and a tremulous, nearly tuneless score from Soderbergh's regular composer, Cliff Martinez.
The young director has done his homework; he trades brilliantly on the cinematic past of his stars. Since Liotta's breakthrough role in "Something Wild," he has made a living playing psychos, villains and ordinary men driven to violent extremes. The audience has a history with him; we love watching him tick, knowing he'll explode eventually.
Carnahan shows us Liotta's explosiveness right away, then applies it to a dedicated, grief-stricken cop who says all he's after is justice. The question is whether to believe him. If anything, Liotta has grown more menacing with age; his once piercing blue eyes are duller, more sinister. With the paunch he packed on for this film and thick goatee, he's beefy and frightening.
Patric has been down this road before too, in "Rush," as a narc who succumbs to addiction. Here, the specter of past drug use haunts Tellis, and his wife, adding another layer of danger to his return to active duty. Despite Liotta's looming presence, this is Patric's movie, and he carries it with wisdom, confidence and intensity.
Carnahan gets his arty flourishes out of the way early, knowing that once the investigation picks up steam, the best thing he can do is stay out of the way. By the final act, the movie feels as if it's directing itself.
You feel Carnahan's passion for the material in the brutal momentum of his storytelling.
"Narc" is the little cop movie that could. It's a genre film, and a harrowing one, made with the confidence of a born filmmaker. Taken on its own terms, it's nearly perfect.
"Narc," a Paramount Pictures release, is rated R for strong, brutal violence, drug content and pervasive language. Running time: 107 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
This sucker cannot open soon enough for me. Jan. 10!
