Something is wrong when the most notable aspect of a sprawling police saga is the level of brutality. “Pride and Glory” is standard-issue stuff, but its taste for violence and torture is remarkably grisly.
The backdrop is an NYPD family dynasty. Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) is still nursing trauma from an unspecified disaster in his recent past. He’s been put on a task force to investigate the shooting of four cops.
His older brother Francis (Noah Emmerich) and their father (Jon Voight) are also police officers of some repute. Ray’s brother-in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell) is, to put it mildly, less reputed. Much of the film’s nastiness comes from him.
Ray and Francis have a sister (Lake Bell), but in this world the women don’t matter much and are barely heard from. Except to suffer nobly, in the case of Francis’ ailing wife (Jennifer Ehle).
Corruption and cover-up are the operative words here, as Ray uncovers stuff he’d rather not know about. Interspersed with violent police scenes are anguished encounters between members of the Tierney clan, the kind that usually climax with someone saying, “This is family,” or “Hey, ya don’t go against family,” or “Fugeddaboutit, we’re family.”
Other than those lapses, the movie’s got a punchy way with dialogue, and co-writer Joe Carnahan (“Smokin’ Aces”) does have a knack for slang. He might also be responsible for some of the more creative torture methods, one of which involves a steam iron and the youngest member of a suspect’s family.
Aside from that sadism, director Gavin O’Connor keeps the movie idling in cliche-land. It’s especially dreary coming on the heels of “We Own the Night,” an overwrought film on a similar idea.
Having said all that, this is still the kind of movie you could possibly enjoy, if you like the actors and the genre. But as far as the actors go, I am 0-for-4 on this one.
Voight is in his usual weepy, distracted mode, and Emmerich (“Little Children”) is one of the dullest supporting actors around. Colin Farrell, beefed up here so he looks like Anthony LaPaglia, plays a single note throughout.
Which leaves Edward Norton, a performer who generally leaves me cold. His character broods a lot, lives on a sailboat (didn’t Colin Farrell already do “Miami Vice”?), and stalks his ex-wife. In other words, this movie is a bummer long before they drag out the steam iron.
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