We've seen many crime drama films--in fact enough to fill a lifetime, and although there have been a plethora of them, there have been good ones and poor ones. Living in a day and age of politics--and how dirty they can be, couple that with police corruption and murder, and, voila!, you have "21 Bridges".
"There are 21 bridges in Manhattan--close 'em, 3 rivers--cover 'em, tunnels--shut 'em down", says Detective Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman), who wants to stop certain crimals from leaving so as to catch them ASAP. Davis is thrust into a citywide manhunt for a pair of cop killers, Ray (Taylor Kitsch) and Michael (Stephan James), after uncovering a massive and unexpected conspiracy. As the night unfolds, lines become blurred on who he's pursuing, and who is in pursuit of him. When the search intensifies, extreme measures are taken to prevent the killers from escaping Manhattan as the authorizes close all 21 bridges to prevent any entry or exit from the iconic island. Through help from Detective Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller) and Captain McKenna (J.K. Simmons), will he be able to catch these killers before the 5am deadline the city has given them?
Others to round out the cast are Keith David as Deputy Chief Spencer, Alexander Siddig as Adi, Louis Cancelmi as Bush, Victoria Cartagena as Yolanda and Gary Carr as Hawk.
This was effectively and intensely directed by Brian Kirk ("Middletown" '06, "My Boy Jack" (TV movie) '07, "Gilded Lilys" (TV movie) '13) plus shorts and a ton of TV. Obviously by his resume, this filmmaker is a virtual newcomer to feature films. As with writing, I believe the directing, as intense and gritty as it was, is because of all the TV this director has been involved with--this definitely served him. The underlying emotional intensity that Boseman conveyed, and how the emotion grew was incredibly effective and this is talented directing. It was effectively written by Adam Mervis ("The Philly Kid" '12) plus shorts, and Matthew Michael Carnahan ("The Kingdom" '07, "Lions for Lambs" '07, "State of Play" '09, "World War Z" '13, "Deepwater Horizon" '16, "Mosul" '19, "Dark Waters" '19), based on a story by Mervis. Certainly Carnahan has the lion's share of the experience here, however since this was based on Mervis' story, I figure that he then received top billing. Considering his resume, I can certainly see that Carnahan was in familiar territory. While this film was slow in getting the story to a point more than just a TV movie crime drama, after a certain place, it actually starting finding itself as a feature film. Once the corruption and politics start unfolding along with dealing with the killers, the storyline really moved right along which captivated me that much more. Was it Academy Award caliber? No, but this story, along with Boseman's principled, integral individual as this tired detective, this script became the story it was attempting to be.
Many crime drama films have and can be tiring and convoluted. As with others, this film started out that way, but then as it unfolded, it truly became a riveting story. Whether or not this was purposed, it would've been more satisfying to see the script meatier earlier on, but this way, it did make the film more interesting to watch.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: R 100mins.
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