(rated R, 105 mins.)
Since botching up a drug ambush a few months back, Nick Tellis (Jason Patric) an undercover narcotics cop, has free time on his hands with a new wife and baby. Fast-forward 18 months later and Tellis sits before a hearing board that informs him that rookie officer Michael Calvess has been murdered. If Tellis can help solve this recent case of dead cop with dead ends, his position will be reinstated. Reluctantly, but for his own set of personal reasons, Tellis is teamed with Lieutenant Harry Oak (Ray Liotta), Calvess’s old partner. The story unfolds around multiple crack houses, drug dens and alleyways a la “Traffic,” to track a killer. Part hip-hop, part “L A Confidential” these nightmares plague the persistent cops reflecting on their own inner demons. Taking a lesson on career revamping John Travolta “Pulp Fiction” style, Liotta has made a smart and convincing decision with his added sixty pounds plus for this role as Lieutenant, coming across both decorated and unstable. Patric too, delivers a torturous role of ex-junkie turned cop. But the movie’s success lies clearly on the thought-to-be-predictable plot twisting in the end, to be anything but. The experience of NARC will leave you affected and addicted for days after.
