This crime thriller has something to say, however I don't know if the filmmakers really know what that exactly is.
Distraught and bleeding, Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore, BOOGIE NIGHTS) stumbles into a hospital, claiming that she has been car jacked near the projects. Detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson, JACKIE BROWN) wonders why a white woman would be down in that neighborhood so late at night. Brenda works at the community center with the kids. But what she is unable to say at first is that her 4-year-old son was in the car when it was stolen.
Council frantically sets out a search for the child, but things get worse when Brenda's cop brother Danny (Ron Eldard, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG) gets involved sending an army of cops down to the projects, where the residents don't like the lockdown for a missing white kid when their children go missing and no one really bothers. With racial tensions high in the projects, Council is offered help from Karen Collucci (Edie Falco, TV's THE SOPRANOS) and her organization that finds missing children — dead or alive. Council has to balance uncovering what happened to Brenda's son and his loyalty to his community. He doesn't trust Brenda, but he doggedly wants to uncover the truth. Other key characters include Council’s white partner Boyle (William Forsythe, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS); Felicia (Aunjanue Ellis, RAY), a black woman who works with Brenda; and Felicia’s abusive boyfriend Billy (Anthony Mackie, MILLION DOLLAR BABY).
Racial tensions are in the forefront of the story, however, they play little in the overall theme, which ends up being more about how tough it is to raise kids when you're poor and don’t have your act together. But because the film has us pointed in so many directions none of its points stick. Also, why does Council keep bringing Brenda back to the black community when it's a powder keg waiting to explode?
Jackson and Moore are good, but Moore is too clean to be the kind of character she is supposed be. Additionally, the way the film presents Falco’s character makes her unnecessarily creepy, almost inferring supernatural abilities, which just muddies up the works even more. As a thriller, the film is just a muddle of too many ideas and never grips like it should. In addition, the smart ideas are left hanging out there with no meaningful conclusion, leaving us wondering what it all is supposed to mean. The filmmakers’ heart was in the right place, but their minds were wandering.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
