21 Bridges

This solid and entertaining cop thriller feels like a throwback to 70s cinema, but the great cast and well-staged action scenes only just make up for a fairly predictable and run-of-the-mill plot.

Premise: When a robbery in Brooklyn goes wrong leaving several police officers dead, Detective Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) persuades the mayor’s office to lockdown Manhattan, trapping the killers (Taylor Kitsch and Stephan James) on the island as the manhunt intensifies.

Review:

For a film called 21 Bridges, the lockdown of Manhattan actually plays a very small part in the film. Yes, Detective Andre Davis (Chadwick Boseman) closes the bridges, blocks the tunnels and shuts down the rivers around Manhattan when he learns that his suspects are currently in Chinatown, but at no point after that does the lockdown (as opposed to the citywide manhunt) actually appear to impact on the storyline. It’s almost as if it was a gimmick just to give the movie a cool title…

In all honesty, the opening section of the film is also pretty clunky. We start with a flashback to the funeral of Andre Davis’ father, a police officer killed in the line of duty, to establish that Andre hates cop killers. We then see the present-day Andre, now an NYPD detective himself, being interviewed by internal affairs regarding his record of fatally shooting cop killers, to remind us that he really hates cop killers. Andre then visits his aging mother, who appears to be suffering from a form of dementia but who talks about Andre’s thirst for “justice”, to remind us that he really, really hates cop killers. (You’d never guess that the next case he gets will involve him hunting for cop killers...).

“…the cast really elevate the material…”

Thankfully, the film improves substantially once we get into the meat of the story, with an impressively staged action set-piece depicting the violent robbery of a drug stash that leaves several police officers dead. We see the robbery from the perspectives of Ray Jackson (Taylor Kitsch) and Michael Trujillo (Stephan James), two relatively low-level criminals who quickly find themselves in over their heads with deadly consequences. Once Andre arrives on the scene, NYPD Captain McKenna (J. K. Simmons) partners him up with Detective Frankie Burns (Sienna Miller), whose experience as narcotics cop could help Andre track the drugs stolen by the killers. The cops of the local precinct are all out for blood, and couldn’t be happier that someone with Andre’s “shoot first” reputation is leading the manhunt for the cop killers.

It’s the cast of 21 Bridges that really elevates the material. Chadwick Boseman has enough charisma and presence to carry the film, even through some of its weaker moments, and Sienna Miller is almost unrecognisable with a very believable New York accent, playing a no-nonsense narcotics cops who’s also juggling her commitments as a single mother. Taylor Kitsch and Stephan James add extra depth and humanity to their characters, so that even when their actions are inexcusable, you can still empathise with their characters and understand the decisions (and mistakes) that brought them to where they are now. Even smaller characters who only appear for a scene or two are impressively brought to life by the talented supporting cast.

“…has a visceral quality reminiscent of the cop thrillers of the 70s…”

The action scenes are also well staged by first-time feature director Brian Kirk, and the film has a grimy and visceral quality that is reminiscent of the cop thrillers of the 70s. For what is, comparatively speaking, a fairly low-budget film, it feels like Brian Kirk has got a lot of production value on screen, with some great location shooting and cityscape shots.

Ultimately, the film’s weak spot is its script, and although none of the later scenes or dialogue are quite as clumsy as the opening section, the film’s “surprises” are likely to be predictable to almost all audience members, meaning that the film’s plot is very forgettable when all is said and done. So while the cast of 21 Bridges ensure that the 2-hours run time is never dull, the film simply “does what it says on the tin” rather than offering anything new to the genre.