21 Bridges (2019) STX/Action-Thriller RT: 99 minutes Rated R (violence and language throughout) Director: Brian Kirk Screenplay: Adam Mervis and Matthew Michael Carnahan Music: Henry Jackman and Alex Belcher Cinematography: Paul Cameron Release date: November 22, 2019 (US) Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, J.K. Simmons, Stephan James, Taylor Kitsch, Keith David, Alexander Siddig, Louis Cancelmi, Victoria Cartagena, Gary Carr, Morocco Omari, Chris Ghaffari, Dale Pavinski, Adriane Lenox, Christian Isaiah. Box Office: $28.5M (US)/$49.9M (World)
Rating: ***
When you hear the term “cop movie”, you probably think of Dirty Harry, Lethal Weapon or Steven Seagal right away, don’t you? I sure do. I still get a charge out of movies about cops whose sole concern was killing as many bad guys as possible in the name of keeping society safe from scumbags. They’re a lot of fun, aren’t they? Well, that’s not the kind of cop movie 21 Bridges is. It’s more thoughtful than that. The hero of this urban tale of violence and corruption, Detective Andre Davis (Boseman, Black Panther), actually thinks before he acts. To him, policing is not a game of takedown. Although he has a reputation for being trigger-happy, his shootings have always been justifiable. He has a strong moral code that was passed down to him by his father, a cop who was killed in the line of duty when he was a boy.
After IAD clears Davis of his seventh kill in ten years, he’s called to the scene of a bloody massacre, the aftermath of a drug robbery gone horribly wrong. The two perps, Michael (James, If Beale Street Could Talk) and Ray (Kitsch, Lone Survivor), came to steal 30 kilos of uncut coke from a restaurant freezer only to find it’s more like 300 kilos. Then the cops show up. A big shoot-out ensues and when the dust settles, eight cops are dead and the two killers are in the wind. Davis’ solution? Put Manhattan Island on total lockdown. This entails shutting down the city’s 21 bridges (hence the title), blocking river traffic, shutting down all public transport outside the city, etc. before “[flooding] the island with blue”. If it wasn’t the wee hours of the morning, this would be a HUGE mess.
Davis is assigned to work with Frankie Burns (Miller, American Sniper), a tough narcotics detective who seems to share her captain’s (Simmons, Whiplash) shoot first/ask no questions mentality. He all but orders Davis to kill the shooters on sight. Davis wants to bring them in alive to find out what really went down. As he proceeds with his pursuit, one that comes with a time crunch before the feds take over, he finds that he’s walked into something much bigger. Of course, it involves dirty cops.
Directed by Brian Kirk (making his feature debut), 21 Bridges is an effective cop actioner with its shoot-outs, chases and stand-offs. One of the things that set it apart from other cop movies is that Davis isn’t out to kill the bad guys. On the contrary, he tries to get to them before his colleagues because they’ll just kill them. He wants to get to the bottom of the case no matter where the road might lead. His strong sense of right and wrong puts him at odds with his brothers-in-blue on more than one occasion. It may also cost him his life if he plays it wrong. Therein lies the movie’s tension.
Although there’s a high degree of predictability at work in 21 Bridges, it still succeeds because it’s extremely well made. Take the opening scene at a cop’s funeral, Davis’ dad’s to be exact. It cuts from the preacher’s impassioned eulogy to an overhead drone shot of the flag-draped casket being carried out of the church. The camera captures the moment when all the cops simultaneously salute their fallen comrade. It’s a powerful moment that conveys the sense of brotherhood among the NYPD while providing context for Davis’ work ethic. In the very next scene, he explains to IA investigators that he doesn’t feel remorse for any of kills because it’s part of the job. He had no choice. He did what he had to do to not be killed. A little later, we watch as he comforts his ailing mother (Lenox, The Butler) in the late stages of Alzheimer’s. He has to remind her that he’s her son not her late husband. It’s a tender scene that shows his compassionate side. However, once Davis gets called to the scene of the crime, we see no more of his personal life. The way Kirk puts this together is masterful.
Another thing that makes 21 Bridges different is that it doesn’t come with heavy overt messages about racism and targeting/profiling. Kirk’s idea to make the more vicious of the cop killers white is rather brilliant. That way, he avoids the stereotypes that usually plague urban cop movies. As a matter of fact, he manages to turn James into a semi-sympathetic character as it becomes obvious he too is a victim of something insidious involving the NYPD.
In the lead role, Boseman does a great job. He truly is one of the best actors to bust onto the scene in the last decade. Whether he’s playing important figures like Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall or an Avenger, he always brings his A-game. Miller overplays it a smidge with the fake New Yawk accent. James and Kitsch are very good as the villains. Simmons does fine work as the vengeful police captain. Overall, the cast turns in solid work as do the screenwriters. Along with Kirk, they keep it lean, mean and gritty. At 99 minutes, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
My final thought is this; 21 Bridges is a damn good cop movie. It doesn’t weigh itself down by trying to be too important. It’s an action flick that delivers the goods and then some. It’s the kind of cop movie I’d like to see more of.
