There
is nothing the media enjoys more than tearing down police officers. An internet
wannabe like Ava Brooks hardly qualifies as media, but she certainly shares all
their biases. However, she will learn just how dangerous it can be to serve as
a uniformed officer in Steven C. Miller’s Line of Duty, which opens
tomorrow in New York.
Officer
Frank Penny was officially cleared of wrong-doing in a prior shooting incident,
but his career has still suffered. He really was blameless, but he remains
wracked with guilt, due to the acutely agonizing circumstances. He walks a beat
these days, fatefully putting him in the perfect place to intercept a fleeing
kidnaping suspect.
Unfortunately,
Penny is forced to shoot the perp before he can disclose any information on the
victim’s whereabouts. Awkwardly, she happens to be the daughter of the police
chief. As a further complication, Brooks captures the entire shooting on her
live-cast, as well as Penny’s subsequent dressing down. Of course, he goes
rogue to rescue the young girl and she does her best to keep up with him, until
things start getting violently real. Soon, the odd couple realizes they will
have to work together to save the victim and stay alive.
If
Line of Duty had been released during the peak of premium cable movie
channels, it would have been a mainstay that we would have frequently
re-watched. It is no classic, but it is slick, professional, generally reassuring,
and highly watchable. Frankly, it is enormously refreshing just to see such a
positive portrayal of a police office on-screen. Penny is no superhero, but Aaron
Eckhart’s lead performance and Jeremy Drysdale’s screenplay cast him in an
acutely human light that actually makes him more sympathetic than an unrealistically
perfect action hero.
Indeed,
Eckhart is suitably intense, largely carrying the film single-handedly as
Penny. In contrast, Courtenay Eaton is mostly rather colorless and nondescript
as the shallow Brooks. Even more problematic, Ben McKenzie totally underwhelms
as Dean Keller, the forgettable and insufficiently sinister white trash super-villain.
However, Giancarlo Esposito adds some energy and edge as Volk, the police chief.
Line
of Fire is
the sort of contemporary B-movie that doesn’t even expect you to see it in
theaters, but it is definitely worth checking out on Netflix or Prime (presumably
in the very near future). It definitely gives viewers a visceral sense of the danger
cops face on the streets and the pressures they feel from society. Miller’s
pacing is brisk and Echkart is genuinely compelling, but the lack of a strong
bad guy is a notable drawback. Recommended as an eventual streaming candidate, Line
of Duty opens tomorrow (11/15) in New York, at the Cinema Village.
