"End of Watch" is not only one of the best cop movies in years,
it is one of the best pictures of 2012, balancing lives-in-the-
balance drama with action and humor between its two lead actors.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena deliver performances that rarely
reach such depth of character. They make an audience care about
their characters and their lives, and their ultra-dangerous jobs,
and all that they stand to lose if they don't come home from work
alive some night.
Writer-director David Ayer is Hollywood's authority on gritty Los
Angeles police dramas, but "End of Watch" is different from his
"Training Day" and "Street Kings." This movie is focused on two good
cops rather than rogue lawmen.
Brian Taylor (Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Pena) are partners and
best friends, patrolling a section of South Central where every day
seems to promise intense action. They seek it out, as we see from
not only the fourth-wall perspective, but also through the men's
tiny uniform cameras and their squad car's dashboard camera.
This latter view provides many of the movie's best moments, and
not only for shootouts and ramming other vehicles, but for the
dialogue between Brian and Mike.
It is that of two best buds joking, giving one another a hard
time, confessing their secrets and fears, and doing their job. These
are characters that you cannot help but care what happens to them as
we come to know their hopes and dreams intimately.
The dialogue between Gyllenhaal and Pena is that of two actors
who genuinely like one another, formed as if they had gone beyond
rehearsals and perhaps doubled-up on police ride-alongs for a month
before filming.
With their relationship established as something that's close to
a work-marriage, their family lives are also explored, and Anna
Kendrick and Natalie Martinez are perfect in wife-of-cop roles that
go beyond token appearances.
Ayer's ear for dialogue and authentic scenes at weddings,
quinceaneras and more provide a background of not only these men's
immediate families, but of the police family and the "thin blue
line" that bonds them.
Ayer keeps his action lively as a series of vignettes of
dangerous squad calls. These include neighbor disturbances gone
wrong, missing children, house fires and drive-by shootings.
What the men find in more than one case is off-putting, but as a
former news reporter who has seen his share of police reports, I can
attest to the authenticity in this R-rated picture.
These men have R-rated jobs, and Ayer doesn't shy away from the
language of the streets. I'd be surprised if any Quentin Tarantino
picture has as many F-bombs as "End of Watch."
Ayer provides an intriguing view of South Central, 20 years after
the riots and movies like "Boyz n the Hood," with blacks looking at
becoming a minority in the area due to the influx of a Latino
population.
It's a dynamic smartly handled on both the street level and in
the cultural differences between Brian and Mike, which are
repeatedly played for politically incorrect laughs.
These are welcome in cutting the tension that is so pervasive as
they scour neighborhoods for the streets' "three food groups: money,
drugs and guns" and find all the evil that accompanies such
packaging.
This combination works to offer some social insight, as well as a
darned entertaining crime drama. There is harrowing violence and
startling action, but the story always relies on a bond between
partners that is as strong as that of brothers.
Even with something of a cop-out ending, "End of Watch" qualifies
as a police story standard for the big screen.
END OF WATCH
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Pena, Natalie Martinez, Anna
Kendrick
Starworld 20, RiverWalk, Owasso, Sand Springs, Moviestar Cinema
Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Rated: R (strong violence, some disturbing images, pervasive
language including sexual references, some drug use)
