Genre:
Thriller
Directed
by: Matthew Saville
Cast:
Joel Edgerton, Tom Wilkinson, Jai Courtney
Running
time: 105 minutes
Mal Toohey is a well-respected police detective
who gets shot in the line of duty during a raid, but is saved by his protective
vest. That evening, he goes out to celebrate with his fellow officers. As he
drives back home, after drinking too much, he hits a teenage boy who was traveling
on his bike. Mal calls an ambulance, but fails to tell anyone of his
involvement in the accident. An honest young cop, who falls for the boy’s
mother, suspects Toohey of being the person responsible, so he starts
investigating the matter, though his superiors are trying to convince him to
let it go.
While the subject matter of this Australian
thriller is nothing really new in itself, the script and the directorial job
done by Matthew Saville manage to breathe some freshness into the concept of
the good cop trying to do his job in spite of the bad ones trying to protect
each other.
There are some solid acting performances
here, especially on Tom Wilkinson’s part. The veteran actor does a solid job as
the senior detective trying to protect his younger officer, in spite of the
fact that he knows he did something terribly wrong. A few of Wilkinson’s
dialogues with his fellow cast members were really intense and well done.
Overall, this is a really good movie. I
especially appreciated the fact that the filmmakers did not try to paint a rosy
picture by the time the movie ended. It is a more realistic way of seeing
things to say that, sometimes, people do choose to ignore the reality in
certain situations.
Rating:
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