Los Angeles, 1999 – Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is a Vietnam vet and a Rampart Precinct cop, dedicated to doing “the people’s dirty work” and asserting his own code of justice, often blurring the lines between right and wrong to maintain his action-hero state of mind. When he gets caught on tape beating a suspect, he finds himself in a personal and emotional downward spiral as the consequences of his past sins and his refusal to change his ways in light of a department-wide corruption scandal seal his fate.
Brown internalizes his fear, anguish and paranoia as his world, complete with two ex-wives who are sisters, two daughters, an aging mentor dispensing bad advice, investigators galore, and a series of seemingly random women, starts making less and less sense. In the end, what is left is a human being stripped of all his pretense, machismo, chauvinism, arrogance, sexism, homophobia, racism, aggression, misanthropy; but is it enough to redeem him as a man?
Directed by: Oren Moverman
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Woody Harrelson, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Ben Foster, Robin Wright, Brie Larson, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Sophie Kargman
Screenplay by: James Ellroy, Oren Moverman
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content and some violence.
Studio: Millennium Entertainment
Release Date: February 10th, 2012
