Movie Review - 21 Bridges

21 Bridges ***½ (out of 5) (R) This action crime drama covers one intense night in which the entire New York Police Department is focused on catching two guys who killed a bunch of cops with armor-piercing ammo in an internecine cocaine grab gone bad. Our protagonist is Detective Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman), son of a cop killed on duty when the lad was 13, solidifying his DNA destiny to serve and protect. Complicating the ordeal is the gnawing suspicion that some of his fellow officers might be dirty enough to be in on the drug trafficking.

Davis is reluctantly partnered with narcotics cop Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller, straying far from her usual range of roles), as they slog though a series of leads, taking them ever closer to the two thugs and those higher on the “food chain” of that enterprise. Bodies keep piling up along the way, and viewers can’t be quite certain about who the real good guys are, compared to which cops might be protecting their side hustles.

Boseman is superb as the man of integrity wading through the muddy waters of crime and corruption. He plays Det. Davis like a young Denzel Washington, even sounding quite like him in a couple of long speeches, especially regarding his distinctive cadence. It’s certainly in the zone with many previous roles that boosted Denzel to stardom. Miller also makes herself almost unrecognizable as the tough, streetwise detective who knows this particular turf better than her ad hoc partner.

Director Brian Cook does a fine job of pacing the action between the talky parts of investigation and the adrenalin-pumping chases and shootouts. Even so, a couple of sequences struck me as a bit confusing, due to his rapid camera changes and the darkness of the nocturnal settings. Its R rating is for violence, language and theme, rather than sexual content. That means there’s no trace of the semi-obligatory strip club scenes permeating the genre. The script admirably maintains suspense until the end about the scope of the narcotics infrastructure, Guessing who the dirty cops might be throughout the movie is a key part of the enjoyment to be derived. (11/22/19)