A Half-Good Day

Not long ago, I saw Training Day, starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. It's the widely praised story of a young cop trying to impress the leader of his new undercover unit, who turns out to be a dangerous and corrupt officer.

The movie turned out to be 45 outstanding minutes sandwiched in the middle of two far less worthy pieces. The film starts off in a drowsy, almost meandering fashion, with lots of slow action that doesn't do much to capture interest. Paradoxically, the movie really has to open this way; it wouldn't be plausible to jump in showing Denzel Washington's character for the real crook he is. We have to see the character take a tiny step too far, and then a step farther than that, and so on, so that Ethan Hawke's character is believably in too deep before he has a chance to back out. And yet, narrative necessity doesn't make the first plodding 45 minutes play any faster.

When the second act arrives, things really kick into high gear. Both actors are phenomenal, and the story becomes tense and immediate. Though the film is mostly meant to be a drama, it has several scenes of real tension and suspense, the equal of many good thrillers. It soon gets good enough to make you forgive and forget the long, slow journey of the first act.

And then it drops the ball again. The last half hour is implausible and ridiculous for a movie that has spent so much time and effort painting a gritty reality. Characters endure more physical punishment than a Schwarzeneggerian action hero. Dangerous street toughs behave decidedly out of character. Things make less and less sense with each passing minute. Ultimately, the movie veers far enough from realism that it becomes borderline pretentious of it to have ever pretended at "docu-drama" in the first place.

That middle act is too powerful to be completely denied, though. And the performances of Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke are everything critics have said and more. It all adds up to a B- in my mind. Probably still worth seeing, but it's a real shame that a grade A movie slipped off the hook and swam away.