In the best noir tradition, the two female leads (Lori Heuring and Pamela Gidley) are gorgeous; the music is moody and the story is full of twists and turns.
Recommended.Admirably well made thriller! Even the picture was made without the support of a glorious and sumptuous photography, emerges as a powerful story whose intensity and twists of fate gets maintain the spectator's interest. A hand hanging in a toy's boat in the middle of a lagoon in Central Park, unavoidable it reminds to Blue Velvet, will be the sparkling point that it will lead to a very interesting puzzle of dark interests, sinister sexual tastes, corruption web and hidden dots beneath the apparent state of things. A psychological mirror arrangement in which the solution will be to play with the weapons of your enemy. Sometimes in this quotidian underground logic you must fight "with" and not "against" a very covered and smart enemy who plays and bets hard that handles carefully the necessary balance between corruption, double moral and ineludible prestige to exert pressure in certain power's spheres that keeps to making up the reality and so, survive. Tom Berenger makes an impressive role when he hast to face this complicated case that will be growing in intensity and complexity. There will be too much interweaved information and the clues will be given through intelligent dialogues and smart clues. Your memory and observation sense will be tested in a film that deserves your attention. A Neo Film Noir that reaches its aim.
The details of the somewhat intricate plot I will not delve into too much here. It involves Asian gangs, S & M, a mystery body part found floating in the river, and a world-weary cop that has been there and done that. The twists and turns in the plot make it a gripping movie to watch, even though it does lag at times.
Tom Berenger is quite good as a worn-out middle aged cop who drinks and smokes too much and who seems fed up with the travails of his job. He doesn't seem like a fool, but he does find himself involved in something more complex than what it appears to be on the surface. We feel sympathy for him, and we want him to come out ahead. His heart (though not always his common sense) is mostly in the right place.
The main female lead, played by Lori Heuring, didn't seem that convincing to me. She seemed too self-conscious and too "aware of her beauty", which to me is a major flaw. However, she's adequate enough in her performance and lovely to look at.
The "look" of this film is moody and film noir, which sometimes manifests itself in a somewhat dreary grey overcast appearance to the movie. Sometimes the actors are not placed in flattering lighting situations either. But, to be honest, they all look fine no matter how abysmal the lighting is.
The plot is, as I mentioned before, full of twists and turns. I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed not knowing quite what to expect next, and I enjoyed not being able to predict the next plot twist. (I weary of seeing the same hackneyed plot device trotted out again and again in these kind of mysteries.) Not to say that everything in this movie was unexpected and unique -- it wasn't. It had its flaws, to be sure. But in the end, the script held plenty of surprises and I found it to be satisfactorily interesting.
I recommend this film, as long as it's understood that while this film is far from flawless, it's interesting enough. A solid offering.
