Rampart
1/4
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Foster, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Robin Wright, Ned Beatty
Rated R for Pervasive Language, Sexual Content and Some Violence
Dozens of movies have been about corrupt cops, drug addicts, racists and bigots, and every kind of misanthrope you can think of. LAPD officer Dan Brown is all of these, and he deserves a better movie than this. "Rampart," from Oren Moverman, who co-wrote and directed the heartbreaking casualty notification service drama "The Messenger," is a boring, cliched, and pretentious drama about a misanthrope. Like we haven't seen that before.
The film takes place in Los Angeles in 1999. The Rampart scandal is in full swing, and Officer Dan Brown (Harrelson) is about to enter a storm of controversy of his own. When his squad car is rammed by a Latino driver, he chases after the guy and nearly beats him to death. The public is out for blood, his lawyer (Weaver) is fed up with him, but Brown doesn't care. It isn't until the money dries up that he gets in deeper; a friend of his, ex-cop Hartshorn (Beatty) clues him in on a high-stakes poker game that's about to go down and he can break up (I think), and he ends up shooting a gunman dead. That puts D.A. investigator Kyle Timkins (Ice Cube) on his tail. Meanwhile, he has to deal with his wife and ex-wife (Heche and Nixon), who are sisters, and a lawyer he's having a fling with (Wright).
Many filmmakers have a sophomore slump: Kevin Smith, James Gray are among the many filmmakers who came out with unsuccessful movies after stunning debuts. Few, however, have fallen as far as Oren Moverman. To his credit, Moverman generates great performances from his cast, particularly Harrelson and Ice Cube. There isn't an instance of artifice in any of the performances. The script is a different story. It's shallow, meandering, and only occasionally makes sense. Brown meets so many characters (all of which are played by big stars venturing into indie territory) that none of them have any room to breathe. In the end, the movie turns into a game of "spot the star."
Harrelson got raves for his performance as Dan Brown, and it's not hard to see why. Harrelson buries deep under the skin of his character, and it's not a happy place to be. This would be one grim film had it actually been involving. That's not Harrelson's fault; he portrays the character as well as he can, but the script defeats him. Ditto for the other cast members, which include two actors from "The Messenger:" Ben Foster as a crippled veteran and Steve Buscemi in a cameo.
The script is to blame for the film misfiring. It's awful, which is surprising since it comes from Moverman and James Ellroy, who is the guy to go to for movies about corrupt cops. This is a character study, but Brown is never fully defined. There's almost nothing that separates Dan Brown from any other corrupt cop in the movies. Worse, he's defined by how he interacts with the various characters, which is a crutch, but that fails because they're even less developed than he is.
What a waste.
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Foster, Cynthia Nixon, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Robin Wright, Ned Beatty
Rated R for Pervasive Language, Sexual Content and Some Violence
Dozens of movies have been about corrupt cops, drug addicts, racists and bigots, and every kind of misanthrope you can think of. LAPD officer Dan Brown is all of these, and he deserves a better movie than this. "Rampart," from Oren Moverman, who co-wrote and directed the heartbreaking casualty notification service drama "The Messenger," is a boring, cliched, and pretentious drama about a misanthrope. Like we haven't seen that before.
The film takes place in Los Angeles in 1999. The Rampart scandal is in full swing, and Officer Dan Brown (Harrelson) is about to enter a storm of controversy of his own. When his squad car is rammed by a Latino driver, he chases after the guy and nearly beats him to death. The public is out for blood, his lawyer (Weaver) is fed up with him, but Brown doesn't care. It isn't until the money dries up that he gets in deeper; a friend of his, ex-cop Hartshorn (Beatty) clues him in on a high-stakes poker game that's about to go down and he can break up (I think), and he ends up shooting a gunman dead. That puts D.A. investigator Kyle Timkins (Ice Cube) on his tail. Meanwhile, he has to deal with his wife and ex-wife (Heche and Nixon), who are sisters, and a lawyer he's having a fling with (Wright).
Many filmmakers have a sophomore slump: Kevin Smith, James Gray are among the many filmmakers who came out with unsuccessful movies after stunning debuts. Few, however, have fallen as far as Oren Moverman. To his credit, Moverman generates great performances from his cast, particularly Harrelson and Ice Cube. There isn't an instance of artifice in any of the performances. The script is a different story. It's shallow, meandering, and only occasionally makes sense. Brown meets so many characters (all of which are played by big stars venturing into indie territory) that none of them have any room to breathe. In the end, the movie turns into a game of "spot the star."
Harrelson got raves for his performance as Dan Brown, and it's not hard to see why. Harrelson buries deep under the skin of his character, and it's not a happy place to be. This would be one grim film had it actually been involving. That's not Harrelson's fault; he portrays the character as well as he can, but the script defeats him. Ditto for the other cast members, which include two actors from "The Messenger:" Ben Foster as a crippled veteran and Steve Buscemi in a cameo.
The script is to blame for the film misfiring. It's awful, which is surprising since it comes from Moverman and James Ellroy, who is the guy to go to for movies about corrupt cops. This is a character study, but Brown is never fully defined. There's almost nothing that separates Dan Brown from any other corrupt cop in the movies. Worse, he's defined by how he interacts with the various characters, which is a crutch, but that fails because they're even less developed than he is.
What a waste.
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