The Flock

1.5/4

Starring: Richard Gere, Claire Danes, Kadee Strickland, Ray Wise, Russell Sams, Avril Lavigne, Matt Schluze, Kristina Sisco

Rated R for Perverse Content involving Aberrant Sexuality and Strong Violence, and for Language

One of my favorite TV shows is "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."  It deals with horrendous crimes such as rape, incest, serial murder and torture, but it does so with intelligence, sensitivity and without ever exploiting the situation.  "The Flock" wants to do something similar, but if you watch one episode of "SVU," you'll realize how inferior the movie is.

Errol Babbage is a registrant administrator for the Department of Public Safety, which means that he goes around interviewing sex offenders and making sure they're staying out of trouble.  Because of his paranoia and penchant for brutalizing the registrants, he is being forced into early retirement.  His replacement, Allison Lowry (Danes), tags along to learn the ropes, but Errol's instability makes him a poor teacher.  Then Errol hears of a girl who's been abducted and he is convinced that one of his registrants is behind it.

"The Flock" is assembled out of all the gritty cop movie cliches, and internationally renowned director Andrew Lau is unable to breathe life into any of them.  There's the cop who walks on the dark side of the law, the innocent new recruit, the helpless victim waiting to be rescued, the climactic twist, yadda yadda yadda.  We've seen it all before, and Lau doesn't give us any reason to see it again.

Much of the reason this movie sucks is because Richard Gere's performance is so horrible.  In the right role, the ex-"Sexiest Man Alive" can be effective, but here he fails to bring any sort of individuality to the role.  Babbage is supposed to be burning with intensity and world weariness, but Gere is better known for low-key pretty boys.  In a gritty crime thriller like this, he's completely out of his element.  Claire Danes is adequate, although there are times when she gets shrill.  Kadee Strickland veers from low-key to foaming at the mouth, but at no time is she particularly convincing.  Rock star Avril Lavigne appears in a small role as an abused woman.

To be fair, Andrew Lau is working with a crappy script, but he doesn't know what he wants his film to be.  Is it a message movie, or an exploitation flick?  Is it a crime drama or a character study?  Is plot-based or a slice-of-life story?  Lau can't decide, and the reshoots by Niels Mueller don't help the situation.  By trying to be everything, it ends up being nothing.

Lacking in virtually every department (Lau can't even generate an acceptable atmosphere), "The Flock" is better left to fly away.

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