The main drawback and charm of the film is that the first half of it is misleading, cunningly pretending to be a standard police fighter, and then gives a trick that you do not expect. The director-screenwriter, after an inconspicuous debut, forever migrated to television, so he feels the features of a modest production, oriented for home viewing, where you need to reveal the main characters, making them alive. The viewer is immersed in acquaintance with two partners, but more and more we recognize the characters from their everyday side than delve into all the subtleties of the investigation to collect material on a certain Asian bandit to arrest him. She is a woman who chose a thankless job instead of keeping her family together, so her daughter lives in another city with her ex and stepmother. No one is waiting at home, no one is cooking breakfast, and the boss looks obliquely, remembering his colleague, who flew out with a bang because of sexual harassment to a miniature blonde with a badge, demanding to be perceived as an officer, not an object of desire. He is a good friend and partner in one person, who is together everywhere on assignments and after shifts, ready to support, joke, drink and eat together, offer a dance in the bar, whose ideal family life causes white envy, and even the wife unmistakably reproaches that the husband spends most of his time with his partner, not with her. It is this routine aspect of the life of law enforcement officers that helps to perceive actors as genuine people with their thoughts and concerns, knocking out of the plane of only the work they do every day, promising informants or conducting surveillance. Genre husks from Hollywood action movies about cool cops there is no place - everything goes slowly, a lot of conversations with the authorities, shootings do not draw any heroes posing with guns in torn T-shirts.
And after such a slightly protracted beginning, resembling a numbered episode of some sluggish police series, reeking of everyday drama, this very family drama suddenly and sharply escalates, turning into a detective thriller with tension, a confusing mystery and endless suspicions of everything in a row. The film thickens colors, giving a modern noir with a fateful coincidence and treacherous personalities, where there is no division into “good” and “bad” policemen, and a loved one or loved one can put a knife in the back when you do not expect it at all. There are only false images, beginning to crumble, exposing the unpleasant gut, hidden once by the most friendly and even love masks. But to understand this, it is necessary to collect all the details of the puzzle together, only the search for our heroine will take place in unfavorable conditions, when colleagues with handcuffs are followed on their heels, the faces of others inspire suspicions in an even place, personal life, changing for the better, causes friction, and even paranoia makes you not trust a faithful partner ... or does he himself darken something?
From the middle to the very end, it is simply impossible to break away from the screen for the benefit of the detective gaining momentum and the growing tension in the frame. Here we should already highlight the actors who managed to convey reliable characters and their emotions. In the main game, Marge Helgenberger quite copes with the task of showing a police officer in a skirt, who is still a woman and a mother. However, the longer you watch, the more you realize that the role itself is only an addition to the image of a colleague played by Michael Bien. The actor brilliantly demonstrated a deceptive character passing through a visual stage of metamorphosis, when it was necessary to unmistakably lead the viewer by the nose with the color of the hero, shimmering in many shades. In it you can see a loving husband, a friendly comrade, leading a partner to romantic thoughts, a sorrowful sufferer who is really sorry, and then... Then there will be more, and it is very cool that the role and acting talent allow us to perceive the hero not one-dimensional, but still alive and true, deserving of a range of emotions on our part. And the puzzle itself, in fact, contributes to this, withstanding the whole story, when it is obvious that the initial bias in the way of life of the characters was not accidental, because it is here that the main root of the detective who pretended to be a police fighter, but in fact released a psychological thriller about just people, and all the tokens and statuses of bandits do not matter.
The film is interesting genre transition, pleases fascinating detective and reliable acting, leaves an aftertaste, and this is enough for a positive assessment of the television project.
8 out of 10
Thank you very much to Ira (Linnan) for the opportunity to see this film!