movie review - Homicide
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
I have never before included a really good movie I saw on television, but this one has stuck with me for the past two months, so here it is.
First of all, the style and tenor of this movie really hooked me (even though I only happened on it because we'd returned from the Olympics closing cemermonies fireworks down at the Harbour Bridge, and I wanted to see what was happening at the beginning of the show - turns out it was a jet with the afterburner on, but I digress). The pace is blistering, the style is as minimalist as it can get, and the dialog is terse and unforgiving. I was hooked from the moment it came on.
This flick is about a Jewish cop in New York, who is on the tale of a killer. He and his partner have a close (but professional) relationship that works well for them. The main cop (Mantegna) is the one who talks people down, as the department's negotiator. His partner is a run-of-the-mill character whose primary role is to highlight the department's disinterest in Jews.
Mantegna is pulled off of the case when a wealthy Jewish woman is shot, and one of her relatives suspects she hears shooting near the family home (not the same location as the murder). What follows is a surprising exposure of the Jew to 'his people's plight', through which the cop finds himself drawn into a Jewish mafia/arms dealing plot.
When this movie's inevitable conclusion comes about in the very final frames, you know that it is both true and real.
I've since read that this plot was written and directed by the same fellow (David Mamet) who wrote the incredible movies The Spanish Prisoner, Glengarry, Glen Ross and Wag the Dog. I'm impressed.
Recommended.