 |
| DIRECTED BY |
| Michael Caton-Jones |
| STARRING |
| Robert De Niro |
| Frances McDormand |
| James Franco |
| Eliza Dushku |
| William Forsythe |
 |
This is a film that takes the cops and robbers storyline and replaces �robbers� with �junkies.� It�s not a whole lot more interesting or original than it sounds, but its backdrop of a city�s degradation is executed well, it has a solid cast, and it takes a number of surprising deviations from the standard �NYPD Blue�-like crime dramas.
Of those deviations, my favorite would be the fact that De Niro�s work partner isn�t young or handsome in the least; he�s unexpectedly plump and benign. But these little originalities just weren�t enough to propel the relative ennui of the storyline very high; my level of interest in the depressing lives of the characters I was watching never really rose far above boredom.
The direction of Michael Caton-Jones is clean and adroit, but there are some ends left untied by the end of the film, particularly with Vincent�s (De Niro) relationship with Michelle (McDormand.) James Franco as the troubled Joey looks like James Dean on Ritalin in every single scene that he�s in, which was very interesting to watch for a while but even his performance grew tiresome by the end.
