PRIDE AND GLORY (2008) ** DVD Review by SEBASTIAN

Once again Edward Norton pulls out another amazing performance in “Pride and Glory”, another police drama attempting to emulate the classic style of Sydney Lumet.

The film follows a NYC police family that becomes involved in corruption that soon threatens to tear apart lifelong bonds. Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) is persuaded by his high-ranking father (Jon Voight) to take a job investigating the murder of four NYC police officers under the command of his brother (Noah Emmerich). In the course of the investigation, in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell) comes under Ray’s scrutiny.

Let me start with where the movie goes wrong. The story, while containing promise, never really gets off the ground because the characters remain unsympathetic to the audience. We are shown needless exposition with secondary characters in an attempt to make the story more compelling. The focus of the movie wanders all over the place. It has all the lingo you would expect in New York, but so little of it really seems to ring true (with the exception of Norton’s and Voight’s character’s).

Colin Farrell, who once seemed possess so much promise has been falling flat in his performances these days and this is no exception. He comes across as a mindless psychopath, when there should be some sense of caring in his character. When pushed to make horrible decisions, there is no remorse in the man. He did these atrocities for the family, pure and simple. He carries off the intensity of Jimmy very well, but fails to put any real pathos in the character.

On the positive side there are some nice exchanges between the actors at times. Voight and Norton have some nice scenes. Even Noah Emmerich, who has never impressed me ,delivered some nice stuff here. He was totally miscast yet again, but his acting was alright in my book. The production delivers as it should, although the director chose to go with a realistic look, bucking any sense of style he could have used to enliven the proceedings.

As I said, the story has an interesting idea at its heart and a sense of what it wishes it was, but in the end it’s nothing we haven’t seen two dozen times before. The movie runs over two hours and feels like it. I’m convinced that everyone involved wanted to deliver something new and edgy, but they just didn’t have the ability to make it work.

2 out of 5 stars

Trailer below…

-Sebastian