After the biggest drug bust of his career, veteran Detective, Malcolm Toohey (Joel Edgerton), enjoys a few drinks with friends before driving home. On the way, he barely clips a paperboy on his bike, but what should be a minor incident, becomes big trouble when the boy is badly hurt in the fall. Toohey calls the police, telling his fellow Detective, Carl Summer (Tom Wilkinson), that he was driving home and found the boy laying there. Summer believes him and lets Toohey on his way, but his young partner, Jim Melic (Jai Courtney), doesn't believe the story and despite his bosses orders, refuses to let it go. The story here is pretty solid, the investigation and police work that go into it are very interesting to watch. Unfortunately, the movie isn't focused on that, as its mostly about Malcolm Toohey and his conscience. We watch as the man turns into a shell of his former self, as he struggles with what to do next. This should be an interesting sub-plot, but not the whole premises of the movie, as it slows things down tremendously. This film moves at such a snails pace, that the terrific and unexpected ending, become almost farcical. Joel Egerton is really terrific in his role, showing how one split second can change a persons life forever. The whole cast was really good and it's a shame that such talent was wasted. It's not that Felony is bad, it's just slow, and lacks the action a police drama should have. That being said, if you're into watching people battle their inner demons and fight their conscience, you might enjoy this film, but to me, it was somewhat boring.

Set in Sydney, this absorbing Australian psychological drama gets fine performances from its' three leads, Tom Wilkinson, Joel Edgerton (who also wrote the screenplay), and Jai Courtney.Edgerton portrays Detective Mal Toohey, who after a police celebration of a successful task force operation that he led, gets behind the wheel "under the influence". He ends up side-swiping a 9-year-old boy riding his bicycle, who's knocked unconscious to the pavement. Detective Toohey stops and calls emergency services but doesn't reveal it was he who hit the boy.Detectives Summer (Wilkinson) and Malic (Courtney) come upon the scene and begin to investigate. Detective Summer is a hardened veteran, who knows Toohey, and believes that the police need to protect their own no matter what. However, Detective Malic is a young and idealistic officer, who believes in finding out the truth no matter what the consequences.Over the next three days, as the young boy lies in a coma in the hospital, they'll be many surprises and twists and turns to come in the film, which I thought were quite engrossing and kept me engaged.Australian filmmaker Matthew Saville handles the direction here and, as mentioned Edgerton wrote the script.In summary, I wasn't, to be honest, thrilled with the ending per se, but overall I thought this was a pretty decent and engaging police psychological drama.

I do like MsSQ's review; I liked those things too.Tom Wilkinson gave a sterling version of the standard Aussie accent too, well done Tom.However, even though I don't like pointing out flaws in Australian films (there aren't enough of them since our shameful PM John Howard sold us out to the US with his Free Trade Agreement)I have to make the following points:1) We do not have a felony/misdemeanor system here as in the US. 2) Joel Edgerton can't act - at all. Give up mate, or get more emotion going on in your face.3) Why keep dyeing your hair Joel,it's fine the way it is. The dye is never convincing and always, repeat ALWAYS, looks cheap. Ditch it.4) The story suffers from a lack of drawing the skeins of the other police work going on around the event. What is the relevance of the raid on the factory ? What happened to the normal everyday police work going on to keep the pressure and tension going ? 5) Joel doesn't know enough about police internals to really give an accurate depiction of what goes on behind the scenes, and how actual police have protected one of their own offending. Nowhere near enough reasoning was given as to why the real offender either should or should not have given themselves up.A credible fail; with more reality and tension, and no Joel Edgerton "acting", this would have been a world class production.

A tightly wound crime drama that oozes class, this Sydney-set motion picture follows on from These Final Hours and Predestination to continue the stellar run for Australian movies in 2014. With an intelligent and slow burning screenplay by Joel Edgerton, Felony deals with one morally murky question: what price should a good person pay for making one bad mistake? Those hoping for a whodunit will be disappointed; the tension is built through a very precise pace and layered character development rather than a complex plot or shock-factor twists and turns. That the characters are so intriguing and engrossing can be equally attributed to the splendid actors on show. Edgerton leads the way as the respected detective, family man and all round top bloke who is forced to deal with a personally complicated situation, and he delivers an almighty performance with nuance and gravitas. He's not the only one though: Jai Courtney takes a break from hard-arse supporting gigs (Jack Reacher, A Good Day to Die Hard) to bring heft and subtlety to his new cop on the block role, whilst veteran Tom Wilkinson relishes his chance to portray the experienced department head who has misplaced old-school values. A special mention also needs to go out to Bryony Marks, whose moody score is utterly sensational and brings emotion all on its own. Due to a limited release it's unlikely you will be able to catch this on the big screen, but to the top of you 'to see' DVD list this should go.