Pride and Glory

Never in my life have I dreaded going to see a movie as much as I did before being forced to see Pride & Glory. From the first time I saw its trailer months ago, my heart sank at the prospect of Hollywood churning out one more action drama about a family of cops facing the possibility that one of their own may have gone crooked. I walked into the theater trying hard to maintain an aura of optimism and impartiality and thinking to myself “There are a few good actors in this movie. It won’t be that bad!” God, was I wrong. Like a dull witted offspring of TV’s The Shield, Pride and Glory is a painfully boring and unoriginal drama that seems self deluded enough to think it’s the first movie to ever comment on family loyalty and police corruption. I was actually lulled into a 5 minute nap during the first hour and I didn’t miss a thing.

The usually compelling Edward Norton stars as Ray Tierny, a missing persons agent in the NYPD who gets guilt tripped into investigating the murder of four cops who worked under the command of his brother Francis (The Truman Show’s Noah Emmerich). While I generally consider myself an Ed Norton fan, the fake scar on his face has more screen presence than he does in this movie. To make matters worse, Colin Farrell is along for the drowsy ride as Jimmy Egan, Ray’s brother-in-law and colleague of the fallen officers. I’m not even exactly sure why, but I just can’t stand Colin Farrell. Maybe it’s his smug Irish party boy lifestyle, maybe it’s how hard he tries to act grim and serious in most of his movies, but whatever it is about him that rubs me wrong, it’s in full force here. After a scene where he takes a cue ball to the skull, I was seriously tempted to proclaim Pride and Glory the feel good movie of the year. John Voight does manage to class up the joint a bit with the role of Tierny family patriarch, a casual alcoholic who understands the family vs. duty dynamic more than anyone else, but his presence certainly isn’t enough to redeem the movie.

As Ray sets out to seek justice, he comes to realize just what a two dimensional monster of a character Jimmy is. But in an apparent effort to pad the running time beyond two hours, he also feels the need to agonize over his discoveries and whether ‘tis nobler to expose corruption or bring shame to both the NYPD and his own family. There is approximately 8 minutes of compelling original content in this entire movie. Especially disappointing considering that I get 50 minutes of amazing crooked cop drama every Tuesday night at 10 on FX.

A special wag of the finger goes to writer/director Gavin O’Connor for both his directorial abuse of steady-cam shots and his lazy screenplay that mistakes three awkward and extraneous “F words” per sentence for gritty realism. I can honestly say that I would have rather been watching High School Musical 3 or Saw V instead of this blandly macho time suck. The next time I feel like taking a nap, I’ll save my $9.75 to stay home with a valium and some merlot.