I'm not the type that demands lots of action for a cop movie to be good, I just want SOMETHING. This movie had very little. The story idea was great but if moved slower than a turtle in a snowdrift. I sat watching this hoping it would get better, just a little. I was glad I had the option of fast forwarding. A scene where the main character eats while in the background his wife listens to music. WOW, that's entertainment. For a minute, two maybe three minutes I could deal, but this scene was closer to 5 minutes, or at least is seemed like it. Watching the house was far longer than it had to be. The acting was flat as a pancake. I know real life conversations are not always animated and I don't want a lot of that, but everyone sounded like they were stuggling to stay awake, which, if not for fast forward, I could identify with.I applaud the moral and ethical soul searching, I just wish it had been cut to a 15 minute movie.

A Wry Comedy – ***Warning: Spoilers*** The appropriate adjective is "absurd." This is an understated comedy about the absurdity of a government bureaucracy and legal system in which no one but the the clerical workers have anything to do. It is not so much a "police procedural" as a satire on how the procedures are employed by everyone throughout the chain of command to justify numbingly wasting hour after hour, day after day, doing essentially nothing. Unfortunately, for most of the film the audience may not be entirely in on the joke.We follow the main character, Cristi, as he engages in a meaningless investigation involving three high school students which should have ended on day one but drags on and on as nothing further happens. The plot device which successfully holds our interest is Cristi's supposed crisis of "conscience" over the possibility of ruining the life of the young suspected drug dealer among the three.However, in a pair of ending scenes which are truly funny and confirm that for the past two hours we have been watching a comedy, Cristi's crisis of conscience is challenged by his superior in an absurd dialogue involving the dictionary - and the following day Cristi outlines a plan to arrest the subjects which is so detailed you would think the targets are the heads of an international cartel. In the end, Cristi's moral dilemma appears to be as much related to his need to attach some meaning to his job as to any reservations over draconian Romanian drug laws.There are no villains here, with the possible exception of "the squealer," the young snitch who started the investigation apparently due to some fissure in his former friendship with the target of the investigation. Everyone including the bosses seem to be basically decent people trying to find some way to cope with the boredom of their jobs in the same way that Cristi uses his crisis of conscience to cope with his.As a viewer, this is what keeps you from feeling "punked" when you realize that what you have been watching was an exercise in coping with bureaucratic induced boredom. Just as the characters have to find a justification for the boredom and meaningless of their jobs, we have to find something, in this case Cristi's dilemma of conscience, to justify our watching their boredom for two hours – even though in the end this rationale is rendered effectively meaningless. It's human nature, shared by the characters and the viewers – if there is no real reason to justify how we are spending our time we will manufacture one.In the end, although I would hesitate to recommend this movie, I do find substantial things to admire about it. It is smart and has a clear purpose which the director adhered to without deviation despite the fact that it cannot be easy, and requires tremendous restraint, to make a movie about endless boredom – and I don't mean that facetiously. And, in retrospect, it is funnier and more focused than it appears as you are watching it, as well as provocative enough to stimulate discussion. I don't find it as compelling as other recent Romanian works such as "Four Months…etc." And I fall somewhere between those who effusively admire it and those who totally dismiss it – but I would definitely pay attention to this director's future efforts.

Police, adjective. Made me wonder when I first read that title - 'what does it mean?' There's a lot of that in this film, looking for meaning, or truth as some would call it.This is certainly one of the most realistic films I have ever seen, but it is also one of the most boring! Basically, you follow a cop on an investigation. The case itself is very serious. It involves arresting a schoolboy, which means prison time, for the offense of using, and offering drugs to, his school friends. Believe me, this film is serious.The police are also serious. They're diligent. They do things by the book. Well done to Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu for meticulously driving this point home. Sometimes though, they also have a 'conscience'. Sometimes.As painstaking as this film was to sit through, I'm glad I did. There is a reason the director chose this bland portrayal of reality. Beneath the layers of mundane moments, there is a simple and important message. The film makes clever use of language and conversation to get that message across. I wont spoil it here, see it to find out.Good film, but 2/10. The police are no fun. But I will look out for more from Corneliu Porumboiu.

This is not a movie, is a waste of time. The dialogs and the acting is good for a primate, not for a decent human being. Please if you have anything else to do, just skip this so called movie, highly overrated by "romanian movie fans", mostly soap opera movie lovers. Just not worth it. The film plot is non existing, storyline is not a real storyline. The director simply doesn't know how to stop shooting and when enough is really enough. As someone else says, this film doesn't have any visual nudity. I really don't know why people are trying to make such movies these days, what's the point of delivering a movie who doesn't deliver anything?