I have always been a fan of the 40s and 50s Film Noir pictures and I guess the reason is the cold, dark reality of the stories.  Pictures like "D.O.A.", "Street with No Name" and "Roadhouse" are prime examples that a director can tell a grim story on a small budget and hold us in suspense for two hours.  That being true, we are going to have to find a place on that list for NARC!  It is Film Noir at its very best, NEW millennium style!  This story has it all and the acting is superb to the point that we immediately identify with the two main characters.  From the ultra-violent beginning of this movie we know that we are going to be splattered with blood by the time it's over, and guess what?  We don't mind because the story dictates that violence and without it we wouldn't get the feel of the lives portrayed. 

In a fine performance, Jason Patric (Sleepers...1996) is Nick Tellis, a narcotics officer for the Detroit P.D. who is on suspension for a questionable shooting and is offered a reprieve if he will only assist in the murder investigation of a fellow narco cop.  The murdered officer's partner is Lt. Henry Oak, played to the tee by Ray Liotta. They have to work together and the case is being tossed back and forth to different agencies due to the politics involved.  From the very start we know something ain't right.  Everybody is trying to end the investigation too fast and as a result, the higher-ups are ready to take any reasonable explanation as to who did it.  The truth?  Who cares, just END IT!  We THINK we know what happened but as a good story will do, we find we are wrong and not as smart as we thought. 

Ever since Ray Liotta's Henry Hill in "Goodfellas" I have been a fan.  This Liotta is different though.  He is older, grayer, heavier and much more ruthless than we have seen him.  His portrayal of a "troubled" cop is excellent but the picture is stolen by Jason Patric!  He is not only troubled, but he is scared and intense to the point of being reckless and a danger to himself and his new partner.  The other star of this picture is the camera.  Everything is dark, gritty, cold and under-lit so that we get a 1940s feel but the color reminds us that we are in the present.  The camera angles and shot perspectives are right out of the Film Noir handbook and show us that the genre is NOT dead.  I really liked this picture and even after I left the theatre I kept thinking about the story and the performances.  I rarely do that. 

RECOMMENDATION:  Great picture?  Maybe not but it was as GOOD as a GOOD picture gets!  I was ALL there and I strongly suggest you spend the money and see it. Rated R for EXTREME Violence!  No kids or prudes allowed! 

TWO BLOOD-DRENCHED, FREEZING IN DETROIT, THUMBS UP!!!  (Wear your vest!)
 

Movie Review © 2003 by Terry Anderson