Marc ADT

A testament to the acting skills of many members of the cast, principally Denzel and Jeffrey Wright, that so disjointedly written a script, and lugubriously paced a movie can be well performed at all. Lots of patina on the production to hide Spike’s, in this case, desultory artistic ambivalence. While one can throw Wright and Denzel into a figurative literary dramatic desert, and that they will still create within seconds a full history, relationship between characters, and relationship to their environment, that, plus some of the other actors’ more than able efforts, fail to overcome the artistically lazy directorial choices to “overdo” in the stead of merely “do” the story telling. When Spike first started, he made films with comparative spit and chewing gum which were crafted with ten times the meaning, pace (especially pertinent in this case), and communicativeness as this effort. Decades of success have dimmed his objectivity, with a notable bit of hubris hidden by sheen and Denzel. Paean to NYC still present though, as in several other of Spike’s movies, most successfully in Inside Man. That was really satisfying, but too ancillary to carry the day.