Review: 'Brooklyn's Finest' Brutal, Honest

'Brooklyn's Finest' (R)(out of four)

"These streets have an expiration date," says Wesley Snipes' character, Caz, in Antoine Fuqua's coarse and gritty police film "Brooklyn's Finest."

The movie chronicles seven days in the lives of three New York City police officers. Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is burned out from his 22-year career on the force and is checking off days on the calendar, one week before he retires.

Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) has three children and twins on the way. His cramped house and ill wife are causing him angst, and he's conjuring unethical ways to try to score some quick cash.

Clarence "Tango" Butler (Don Cheadle) is torn between his aspirations to become a detective, his loyalty to the streets where he grew up, and Caz, an infamous drug dealer that the feds want locked away.

And while the streets have an expiration date, mostly every inconsequential character in the film has an expiration date, too. The body count is high, the blood thick, and the gunshots many and loud. In the first scene of the film, Fuqua shocks his audience by creating calm, then bam! Already the film has you on the edge of your seat.

Gere comfortably settles into his role as the loner whose girlfriend is a drugged- out hooker. (In one graphic scene, one man leaves as another pays a visit. She doesn't even have time to clean up.) His apartment is sparse without sheets on the bed. His nightstand has an ever-present bottle of Irish whiskey. It's a good role for Gere, and Fuqua allows him room to breathe and make the character his own.

Hawke's slow-burn characterization of a cop on the edge makes Procida probably more interesting than he might have been. When Procida goes to a confessional to ask for forgiveness of his sins, the character's plea digs deep with Hawke driving the emotion.

And Cheadle has proven that he can play any part and have the audience on his side. Tango is probably the most earnest character in the film.

There's not much in "Brooklyn's Finest" that we haven't seen before: the new breed of New York gangsters killing each other over drugs and money, police being accused of being trigger-happy and racist, cover- ups and kidnappings, all on the lean, mean streets of one of the toughest areas of New York.

Yet with Fuqua's unapologetic approach to Michael C. Martin's script, fleshed out from some real-life stories, the unraveling of each man's trials and tribulations gives "Brooklyn's Finest" its edge.