Unfortunately, I only watched this film noir in french spoken, in a horrible dubbing. No other way to see it. On a DVD release with no English...Anyway, this did not prevent me to appreciate, to love this bleak, dark, depressing story of a cop on the road to perdition. A borderline cop, as I crave for. I thought of a old french crime flick, made in the early eighties, starring Victor Lanoux and Xavier Deluc, in a nearly same scheme. LA TRICHE. Nearly, I insist. The scheme of the cop involved - only in the end - in a homosexual matter, made me think of the french film. For the rest, both of these features are film noir describing cops on the loose. The savage one, with no redemption at the end. Useless to say that the underrated and too much unknown David Morse gives here a more than brilliant performance. But, as I said, this movie will remain unknown, except the fact that it was the last one of this young supporting actor, whose I don't remember the name. Here, he play's the lead's side kick.
... View MoreThe hallmark of a really good performance is that you don't even realize who the actor is. The ability to transform and completely change who you are to create a character is a rare talent... Cory pulls that off in this movie. Let's be honest, no one is seeing this movie because they're a fan of police drama's. There are thousands of those out there and yes, those are better told than this one. You're interested in this movie as a curious last look at Cory's career to see what his final piece of work was. Well let me tell you right now, this is something special. He devoted himself to this character. He is so far into it that even when his face takes up 90% of the screen you'll be second guessing if it's Cory or not. He dived into this character completely and if this is to go in the history books as his final film, it's a perfect film to hold that title. It proves that he had fantastic potential to pull out amazing performances, sadly we won't see any more after this. It's a must see for any fan of Cory, you owe it to yourself to see him at his prime.
... View MoreIn regards to Corey Montieth: I saw that the other review focused almost entirely on Montieth's performance. In truth, he plays a supporting role without much screen time (although it is an important role). He does an adequate job, but I was not blown away by his performance. I will say that he was completely unrecognizable to me, which is a positive thing.In regards to David Morse: A underrated actor who I have always appreciated. He carries the burden of the film on his shoulders and makes it look easy. Morse has a way of being menacing and is absolutely believable as a cop approaching retirement age who can still scare people shitless.The movie as a whole: A mixed bag. Rather than being the gritty character study that it wants to be, it feels like a ripoff of some other superior gritty character study. The dialogue is just barely off the mark, but enough so that it feels slightly odd. Some plot points are naggingly unrealistic (For example, the idea that Morse's partner could be unaware of a robbery/rape that occurred the previous night. Believe me every cop in the city would be aware). The camera-work and direction are competent but bland. Morse raises my score from a 4 to a 6.
... View MoreI chose to see this movie (at TIFF 2013)for three reasons; David Morse, the brief synopsis in the TIFF guide and, finally, to see what Corey Monteith was capable of doing, outside of Glee. This is a low budget film with a a deceptively simple story and I was only expecting to be mildly entertained. BIG MISTAKE!!!Corey Monteith can ACT. Since I have never seen him do anything other than play a shy highschool football player with musical leanings.... I was completely blown away by his portrayal in this film. If I were to compare the difference between my expectations based on his Glee persona and his performance in this role, to any other actor with a similar, abrupt growth spurt of acting chops, it would have to be what Heath Ledger accomplished in The Dark Knight Returns. To be honest, I never would have expected this performance from him.The movie itself is OK and it has a solid cast but Corey's was definitely the difference in the film. It makes you wonder what we might have seen from him in the years to come if only..........
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