Film Review - End of Watch

 

For me, Ayer’s work has never been much to look forward to. However, when you expect little it’s not hard to find yourself pleasantly surprised, especially when our two leads (Gyllenhaal and Pena) spark a chemistry so captivating and believable that the plot inevitably takes a back seat. The two performances came together in an unlikely and deeply intimiate harmony, a gem captured rarely throught this movie genre.

Critics are likely to compare our guys to the likes of other cop-duo bench marks like Glover and Gibson (Lethal Weapon) but in my mind, ‘End of Watch’ has positioned itself in a non-comparable position. The reason? that this is in fact, above all else, a bromance story merely set against the gritty backdrop of downtown LA.

Given this unbreakable, claustrophobic, live-and-breathe cop partnership, the numerous insights into their personal lives were left totally irrelevant. The immersion of the found footage and the confines of the car renounces the importance of the their lives beyond the job and had me eager to rejoin the duo on the job every time we left it. Usually, this is an effective device for character development and establishing empathy in the audience, but here it just didn’t add anything. Furthermore, these tangents would have been less intrusive had they not been ridden with cliches. Now, cliches never usually trouble me, but in a movie that’s overtly attempting to transcend the norms of the cop movie genre, they stick out like a sore thumb (oh the irony).

The inclusion of found footage was definitely successful in its capture of the gritty realism and slow building to the action packed finale, but it was too disappointingly safe to achieve its full potential. Though Ayer used it strategically throughout the film to give weight to tense moments, it contradicted the randomness and uncertainty that found footage usually does so well to achieve and as a result, the plot became more contrived than I think Ayer wanted it to be.

Niggles aside, the film is enjoyable in places. the acting is faultless and the plot builds slowly and consistently, managing to keep even the most impatient ones among us hooked with some deeply tense stand-offs, interesting dialogue and one killer climax.

5/10