End of Watch [Review by Haus]

I’m reviewing End of Watch not just because we’ve been absent for some months, not just because this film has evidently been re-released to boost Oscar buzz, and not just because Parsi and I saw this (again) in Anchorage last weekend. No. I’m reviewing this because it’s a damn good movie. You should see it.

The story revolves around Mexican cartels operating in LA. Two cops stumble upon some illicit operations and ultimately find themselves in over their heads. But if that story sounds fantastic — and it is, a little — don’t worry. It’s not what you’ll remember. This is a violent, fast-paced, powerful, and ultimately very human film. The characters will live on in your memory long past the closing credits. These cops — and their families, briefly-glimpsed — are real people.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena play LA policemen cruising the streets on a tough beat. But forget the never-ending parade of cop movies you’ve seen before. Despite employing the semi-tired found-footage conceit (Gyllenhaal and Pena’s characters wear clip-on videocameras to tape their daily lives for Gyllenhaal’s film class), this film is riveting. And it’s the actors’ fault.

Officers Taylor and Zavala are hotshots — thanks to a double shooting shown in the opening montage — but simple beat cops nonetheless, piloting a black-and-white through the daily grind. They keep it grounded. They take crap from the sarge (who in turn takes the same from the captain), they crack wise at roll call, and they jab and jeer with their fellow officers. Tasked with patrolling a tough neighborhood, they cruise the LA streets, shooting the breeze more than the bad guys. There’s enough gritty LA gangland voyeurism and schadenfreudic housecruising here to sate fans of Training Day and The Shield, some cool busts, and some truly touching moments — the latter largely involving Anna Kendrick and Annie Martinez as the love interests.

But the true magic happens when these two are just driving around, talking. Gyllenhaal and Pena have an easy rapport, and their continual ribbing and cajoling and ultimate love for one another carries the film.

Granted, I’m not a cop. What I see as hard-boiled realism may well be laughed off by real patrol officers, much like my friend who’s an ER attending once scoffed at hospital dramas. Fair enough. But while writer David Ayer‘s other films (Training Day, Dark Blue, Harsh Times, the original Fast and the Furious, and SWAT) have tended toward the fantastical side of the L.A. crime world — and although his cartel-centric story superficially risks the same here — I find it difficult to believe that even real beat cops would malign the two protagonists. They’re just cool dudes. When, at a pivotal moment, one must address a crowd and describe what his partner means to him, words fail him — but we already know what he’s struggling to express. It’s the true meaning of “show, don’t tell.”

In other news, this film marks my second exposure to Cody Horn this year — it seems having a father who’s the chairman of Disney and a former president of Warner Brothers really does help with auditions — and she’s quite watchable here. Ugly Betty cleaned up nicely as her partner, too. The supporting cast in general is good, but with all respect to these actors, it doesn’t really matter. The story doesn’t matter, the cartel doesn’t matter, the gangs don’t matter. Even the excellent music doesn’t much matter. Gyllenhaal and Pena, though, will make you believe.

HAUS VERDICT: The protagonists’ easy chemistry smooths a sometimes exotic plot and drives this cop film to unexpected heights.