The crooked cop saga – the multi-generational Irish family – has been done to death, yet this one has something that gains momentum as it goes. Could it be the stars? (Jimmy) Colin Farrell is a family man by day and cop-gone-bad by night. His brother-in-law Ray (Ed Norton) investigates a case that leads him to some unexpected truths and in opening this Pandora’s Box, finds himself torn between family and the Police force, justice and scandal, not to mention a father, Francis (Jon Voight) who is a decorated Sergeant. For a good half hour we don’t understand who’s who or what’s going on, other than four cops have been found dead. And we don’t care about any of these characters either. But slowly, somehow, the movie seeps under our skin. Certainly the intense acting and performance-range of Farrell and Norton together makes for great screen chemistry. Voight’s drunken Christmas dinner speech is a highlight in veteran performances, and the movie casts some creepy looking bad guys that are authentic and chilling. (Certainly not the kind of guys you’d want to run into walking home late at night with a bag of groceries.) Ironically as the integrity of the police force diminishes, the movie begins to grow. Rated R. Three tiaras
