This is one of those dirty gritty cop thrillers where the line between good and bad simply does not exist. Personally I prefer these types of movies to the standard police thriller where the police are clearly on the good guys side and the suspect is clearly one of the bad guys. While some of them with a good dose of action, or a good dose of comedy, are good, it is the ones, like this one, where the black and white view of society pretty much morphs into an ugly shade of grey.
The movie is set in Bridgeport Conneticuit, which I liked because of the shift away from the standard New York, Los Angeles, Chicago (or random small town) setting of most American movies. It is always good to actually move away from these standard settings to realise that all of the action simply does not happen in one of these three cities. It is also about a police officer who has managed to clean himself up after what appeared to be a random shooting (though we find out more about it afterwards) and move onto the straight and narrow. Also, right at the beginning of the film, we are also introduced to the major theme, and that is perception as opposed to reality.
The idea is to project a perception of the police force so that people can have confidence in the police, and as such when it turns out that a police officer has gone bad, the who mess is swept under the carpet. However, if it is possible to hang one of them out to dry, then it can be done as well. Make an example of one of them so that all the others fall in line. This begins with an incident where our main character has finally caught up with a rapist who, after being arrested, turns out to be a cop. However, in the interview room, we also notice that on one hand, we have the lawyer trying to plead mental incapacity, and on the other hand the captain wanting to keep the whole sordid mess hush hush.
The main character is portrayed very much as a loner. He goes about his own business, and investigates his own personal cases. In fact, Stephen Dorf, who is the lead actor, does a brilliant job at this. This is not a partner movie where the cops partner up and buddy buddy all the way through the film. No, there is too many skeleton's in the closet for that to happen. True, he has a good family life, but even then that was on the rocks for a while as well.
In most cases, it is all about perception verse reality. It is one of those films where as it progresses, more and more becomes revealed. The perception, the illusionary veil, is slowly pierced to bring about the reality of what is going on. Even then, by the end of the film, when all is said and done, the attempt at keeping the veil intact is maintained. However, it is interesting, and whether this is based on fact or not, the film indicates that the person who was the main person responsible for the veil, while doing time, does not do as much time as the one who successfully ripped the veil to shreds (but there is a reason for that, which I won't go into).
The movie is set in Bridgeport Conneticuit, which I liked because of the shift away from the standard New York, Los Angeles, Chicago (or random small town) setting of most American movies. It is always good to actually move away from these standard settings to realise that all of the action simply does not happen in one of these three cities. It is also about a police officer who has managed to clean himself up after what appeared to be a random shooting (though we find out more about it afterwards) and move onto the straight and narrow. Also, right at the beginning of the film, we are also introduced to the major theme, and that is perception as opposed to reality.
The idea is to project a perception of the police force so that people can have confidence in the police, and as such when it turns out that a police officer has gone bad, the who mess is swept under the carpet. However, if it is possible to hang one of them out to dry, then it can be done as well. Make an example of one of them so that all the others fall in line. This begins with an incident where our main character has finally caught up with a rapist who, after being arrested, turns out to be a cop. However, in the interview room, we also notice that on one hand, we have the lawyer trying to plead mental incapacity, and on the other hand the captain wanting to keep the whole sordid mess hush hush.
The main character is portrayed very much as a loner. He goes about his own business, and investigates his own personal cases. In fact, Stephen Dorf, who is the lead actor, does a brilliant job at this. This is not a partner movie where the cops partner up and buddy buddy all the way through the film. No, there is too many skeleton's in the closet for that to happen. True, he has a good family life, but even then that was on the rocks for a while as well.
In most cases, it is all about perception verse reality. It is one of those films where as it progresses, more and more becomes revealed. The perception, the illusionary veil, is slowly pierced to bring about the reality of what is going on. Even then, by the end of the film, when all is said and done, the attempt at keeping the veil intact is maintained. However, it is interesting, and whether this is based on fact or not, the film indicates that the person who was the main person responsible for the veil, while doing time, does not do as much time as the one who successfully ripped the veil to shreds (but there is a reason for that, which I won't go into).