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Talking To The Screen
Narc : 2002
Tuesday, 1/14/03, 4:15 pm
Broadway and 19th Street

I first heard about ?Narc? when listening to an interview with Busta Rhymes on Hot 97. He promoted the fact that it was the first time that he?s been able to play a darker role. Typically, he is some form of comic relief (?Finding Forrester?, ?Shaft?). He wasn?t kidding. His character in ?Narc? is drug dealer who has a lucrative side gig running a chop shop. One highlight of this flick, and maybe the point that will remain with me as trivia, is Ray Liotta calling Busta Rhymes, ?Coolio?.

As expected, ?Narc? is about an undercover narcotics officer, Jason Patric (?Rush?,?Sleepers?) who, after a dramatic event replayed in the opening scene, take a hiatus only to return to The Blue to assist on a case in which another narc is killed in cold blood. His partner on this case is a righteous but anti-?rules and regulations? veteran cop played by a strikingly overweight, Ray Liotta. As their investigation unfolds, Detectives Tellis (Patric) and Oak (Liotta) are led patiently but rather directly to two men who not only knew the slain officer, but claim to know what happened in his final minutes. Since this is a cop movie there are, of course, some requisite plot twists, or at least bends, but they all take place in the climactic final scene.

There are two surprising elements to this movie; sadly, the plot isn?t one of them.

Ray Liotta?s performance is as impressive as his girth. Detective Oak is far and away the most developed character I?ve ever seen him play, miles beyond his role in ?Turbulence?, in my opinion, the worst movie ever made. There are moments, throughout the movie, where I squirmed, fearing that Oak would end turn out to be an incarnation of Denzel Washington?s role in ?Training Day?, the cop twisted beyond sanity by his self-righteous desire to do good on his own terms. Fortunately, this soon to be clich? is narrowly avoided, the end result being a much more cohesive and believable character than Detective Alonzo Harris (Oscar and all).

The editing and visual elements of ?Narc? are also noteworthy. In the spirit of the modern stylistic masters, ?Fight Club?, ?Snatch? and The Music Video (as a genre), ?Narc? is a stunning movie to watch. The coloring, especially in the drug addled underworld, is variety of septic greens and browns. There?s one particularly striking scene toward the beginning of the movie where the action splits first in to two parallel scenes, then splits again into four. There is a slight similarity in visual style if not purpose to a scene in ?Run Lola Run?.

?Narc? is a fun movie to watch. It?s a decent cop drama, certainly no worse than ?Training Day?. It?s not very deep, insightful, or moving, but it?s a good time.