Narc Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)January 13th, 2003
NARC
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An undercover narcotics cop is murdered but the investigation does not come up with a single suspect. Two months later another narc cop, Nick Tellis (Jason Patric), is pulled from suspension (following a tragic shooting) and is given another chance - close the case and get reinstated. He gets the help of the dead cop's former partner, Henry Oaks (Ray Liotta), a loose canon that vows he will find the killers, police procedure be damned, in "Narc."
Writer/director Joe Carnahan ("Blood, Guts, Bullets and Octane") puts himself on the map with his stylish sophomore effort. Jason Patric, revisiting terrain he explored in 1991's "Rush," gives the performance of his career, supported by Ray Liotta in a flashier turn.
Carnahan grabs you by the throat with his opener, where undercover narc Tellis chases a drug dealer who takes out a cop with a syringe of bad dope before using a child as a shield. Tellis kills the guy, but also hits a pregnant woman, causing her to lose her unborn child. The scene is cringe-inducing, bloody and pulsating, given a jangly edge
by Alex Nepomniashcy's ("Safe") gray-toned, handheld camera work. (He later films a quiet, confessional moment between Tellis and Oak sitting in their car in a long slow pan, capturing different textures and reflections as the camera moves.)
Introspective Tellis, whose wife Audrey (Krista Bridges, "Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy") is threatening to leave him over his return to the streets, is initially wary of hair-trigger Oaks, who became a better cop the day his beloved wife died, but the two fall into a partnership with a mutual goal. When Oaks overacts because Tellis questioned Chalvess's wife Kathryn (Anne Openshaw, "Hardball") without him, cracks begin to appear until the mystery surrounding Chalvess's death is gradually revealed (and will probably not be what you think you've figured out).
Carnahan's adaptation of his earlier short film "Gun Point" is thematically driven by children. Tellis's newborn child is a constant reminder of the one he lost in gun battle. Oak is haunted by the 10 year old girl he found during a drug raid quivering in a closet, prostituted by the dealer Oak goes medieval on. Tellis is obviously connected to the murdered cop, Michael Calvess (Alan van Sprang), through their undercover narcotics work, but Carnahan continues the thread with Tellis's reaction to the dead man's children who he meets in a square green living room with white woodwork trim just like his own.
Patric, who is as strong a lead here playing inward as he was as support in "Your Friends and Neighbors" playing villainous, gives a truly memorable performance. When Oaks crosses major lines in the film's climax, you can see the confusion and denial playing out inside Patric's head. His scenes with his infant are simply amazing - rarely has such rapport with a baby been captured by a professional actor. Patric is able to take a squalling child and comfort it in seconds. Liotta, who gained thirty pounds to look ten years older, presents an air of strong competence tinged with the threat of bottled rage, yet he also project a deep sense of sorrow. He's most entertaining, however, when he reacts with incredulous glee at two outrageous crime scenes - one played for laughs, the other like an ironic play on "Se7en."
Support is top notch across the board, with John Ortiz ("Ali") most notable as Octavio Ruiz, a pantless crack addict who set his girlfriend's hair on fire for giving him the clap who then goes on to profess his love for her. Rapper Busta Rhymes ("Finding Forrester") is strong in that crucial climax as Beery, a chop shopper who may know what happened to Chalvess.
"Narc's" flaws are limited to a couple of indulgences by a young filmmaker. Carnahan imaginatively uses widescreen split screen, which blossoms into four panels, to efficiently portray a day of detective work, but lessens the device's impact when he goes on too long, using three of the four frames to show the same scene from different angles. His climax, which plays out like Michael Madsen's "Stuck in the Middle with You" scene from "Reservoir Dogs" in reverse, also loses some impact in its pacing. Still, "Narc's" strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.
B
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