21 Bridges: Review by @Kush_Hayes
You know that feeling where you sense something is “off” or “just feels like ___”?
Most of my experience in the screening of 21 Bridges last night kept making me feel like I was watching a tv show on the big screen. That should not come off as a knock, but its an interesting identifier that once you look up Director Brian Kirks resume reveals most of his experience is in directing Paid Cable TV shows. Some very good titles as well, including Dexter, Penny Dreadful and Game of Thrones. I dont know why I knew that, or saw that, however everything came into focus for me before writing this review of the Russo Brothers produced cop drama.
Having gotten past that information, this is a very good intense Crime Drama where everyone is dirty, no one is a hero, even those who do the right thing - do them for the wrong reason.
We start our film meeting a young Andre Davis who will grow up to be Chadwick Bosman, who is attending his fathers funeral. Its a lavish ceremony as his father, also a police officer was murdered in the line of duty. Its a pretty powerful intro, and I appreciated the overhead shots of the servicemen in attendance in the streets.
We skim forward 20+ years and Andre is one of the NYPDs best detectives despite being a somewhat controversial figure who has killed 8 suspects in self defense in the last 9 years. He has built a reputation in his career and with his coworkers as a cop who shoots first and ask questions later. We also see this is far from the truth as Davis goes out of his way to never draw his gun, until he has no other choice.
From there we get to the situation that brings everyone together and thats two suspects with military backgrounds looking to rob a local cocaine stash house, based on a tip, where their informant neglected to add a zero to what they should expect to find. Meaning they were looking to find 30kg but found 300kgs. Youd think theyd just try to take all of it, however, they just take a little more than they were expecting. Coincidentally, four police officers come by the location as the spot is being robbed and thats when chaos begins. They will get away by murdering every cop on site, and that brings in every cop looking for them. We will discover that the NYPD has additional motivation to catching these two above just trying to find cop killers. The conspiracy now following these guys gets larger and larger as we get into the film to the point where our cop killers think they were set up, but it turns out this has all just been a horrible coincidence as well as just a bad tip.
Chadwick Bosman takes command of this film and you feel like he is in total control of the situation in front of us. And as the conspiracy unravels you enjoy seeming him not only keep cool, but let things play out so this coworkers dont think he’s on to them. They stick him with a partner, Sienna Miller who plays Narcotics detective Frankie Burns whose performance compliments Bosman, and you could see these two being partners in real life. Incredibly good chemistry, even when Davis suspects she might not be all legit as well.
The rest of the cast in this is great and you wish they had more time in the film. Talents include JK Simmons, and Keith David as police brass, plus our cop killers played by Taylor Kitsch, most recently known for the TV Mini Series Waco and Stephen James who play the wrongly convicted Vonnie in last years academy award winning If Beale Street Could Talk.
There is a lot of good in this. I wish I could say great. As mentioned above, I had a feeling about this movie, I also have a feeling like there was a second ending tacked onto this film. Originally due to come out over the summer this movie was delayed an additional 3 months which would be enough time to film an ending “that wrapped everything up”. I could be wrong about this. Less than a day after its premier, theres no real way for me to find out. I think this movie could have ended 8 mins earlier than it does, and would have left the audience with the feeling “that we are only getting started”, or even “this is a harsh reality of how this could/would go”.
I think this is a good film and could have a long shelf life among fans of the intense gritty police procedural.
Four out of Six Blueberries
Rated R for violence and language throughout
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