It was a toss up tonight between Max Payne, W or Pride and Glory. My choice won out this evening and I’m kind of regretting it. M and Steve have already stated that I am NOT choosing the movie next time.
Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich and Colin Firth are a family of active and retired NY city police. After 4 cops are shot dead, Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) is convinced by his father, a retired cop (John Voight) to join the task force to find out what happened. As the viewer we find out early in the piece that Jimmy Egan (Colin Firth), brother in law to Ray, is involved. What we don’t know is whether the other members of the family are also in the know.
At times this movie was a bit slow. We see quite a lot of interaction with their wives and children of which it doesn’t seem to add any relevance to the story at all. We also spend a lot of time wondering what haunts Edward Norton’s character and is this the reason why his face is scarred.
In all it seemed to miss some really good opportunities to tell not just a good story but a great story. It did leave me feeling rather depressed though as even though at the end the right thing is done, you still get the feeling that the dirty cops won. I guess in many ways it scares me to think that as a society we continue to grow in our distrust of those that are meant to protect us and this movie doesn’t help to diminish that momentum. 2.5 out of 5.