With
a name like that, there is only one thing he could be: a corrupt cop—or at
least semi-corrupt. Regardless, he will fix himself up real good in Josh C. Waller’s
McCanick (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
It
is Eugene “Mack” McCanick’s birthday and he hopes to celebrate at a
bury-the-hatchet dinner with his estranged grown son. However, he is thrown off
stride when he learns Simon Weeks has been released from prison. The former
street hustler was involved in the murder of a congressman. Strictly speaking,
he probably was not the killer, but McCanick sent him up the river anyway. Now
that he is out, McCanick is determined to keep him permanently quiet, without
compromising his promotion-track partner. Needless to say, things get ugly
quickly.
Basically,
we already know exactly what to expect from McCanick the character and the
film, but David Morse plays his grizzled angst for all its worth. Right from
the start, he vividly expresses McCanick’s tragic rage and weary resignation.
Beyond his considerable size, he truly has a cop-like presence. In contrast,
the late Cory Monteith’s turn as Weeks suggests he was probably better served
by television’s smaller frame. Still, he looks reasonably credible in this
vice-ridden milieu. In contrast, Ciarán Hinds sounds ridiculously out of place
as the crusty veteran Philadelphia police captain, but at least as an old pro
he knows how to command the spotlight.
Evidently,
McCanick is a period piece, since a
now shuttered Borders store can clearly be seen in an early street montage. It
is also rather hard to believe a broken down copper like McCanick could careen
across the city, wreaking havoc on his colleagues with such relative ease. Still,
Waller capitalizes on the gritty Philly locales, if not exactly doing a lot of
favors for the city’s tourism campaign.
