Pride and Glory – Nothing out of the Ordinary

Pride and Glory

Starring Ed Norton, Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, and Noah Emmerich
Directed by Gavin O’Connor (Miracle)
Rated R for strong violence, pervasive language, and brief drug content
Appropriate for ages 17+

When four officers are killed in New York City, a family of cops attempts to uncover the truth of the night’s event and catch the killer.  When one of the sons (Norton) discovers that his brother-in-law (Farrell) might be somehow responsible, he must make the choice between turning a blind eye or revealing the truth that might bring shame to his family and the entire police department.

If anyone thinks that the above synopsis gives away too much, just watch the trailer.  In fact, if you want to save yourself the cost of admission/concessions and two hours of wasted time, just watch the trailer.  It tells you the whole story and doesn’t put you to sleep.  I really wanted to like this film and thought that if Norton and Farrell signed on for a cop movie like this, that it must be worth watching.  Once again, I was wrong.  While it’s not as bad as some of the cop dramas of recent years (cough, cough, Street Kings), it proves itself to be nothing special rather quickly.  There is the good cop and the bad cop and the cop that allows the bad cops to be bad cops as long as they don’t cross over the line too far.  I think I’ve heard that one before.

What’s really missing in this family cop drama is the family dynamic.  Despite it’s many tries, the film fails to establish any kind of family chemistry and thus fails to make the audience care about it’s characters.

The performances here by Norton and Farrell were good but the rest of the cast seemed either far too excited or completely underwhelmed by the material.  You can probably blame these uneven performance on the director, but that wouldn’t have helped the script problems. 

Lastly, the title is incredibly generic.  It could describe police, fire, military, sports, religion, politics or any number of subjects.  I will say this though, the boring generic title does say a lot about the film.    C-