Cop-family drama overshoots

IT'S GOOD COPS vs. bad cops in "Pride and Glory," a movie you may well feel you've seen before. This is despite the fact it is well-acted by such a sterling ensemble as Jennifer Ehle, Edward Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight.

A few of its ancestors include Al Pacino's "Serpico" (1973), "Prince of the City" (1981) and last year's "We Own the Night."

"Pride and Glory," a ridiculously grandiose title for a gritty little drama, is so soaked in this genre that it brings nothing new to the plate. This is not to say that the fine cast doesn't work hard.

Norton, always good, appears dour and concerned over his plight as an investigator who learns that members of his Irish American cop family might have been involved in a cop killing.

He is obviously torn over whether to keep quiet and remain loyal to the family or turn in his implicated brother, played by Noah Emmerich. His brother actually thinks there is nothing wrong with merely looking the other way if fellow officers do wrong.

More colorful is Colin Farrell as the bad boy of the family. He's the brother-in-law who, early on, is shown to be dirty, yet the film subsequently plays as if we don't know. Farrell, after a noisy but faltering Hollywood opening to his career, has now settled into becoming a fine, serious actor. He is in one of this year's best movies, "In Bruges."

"Pride" is so predictable that we keep suspecting, or hoping, that we're wrong and that something surprising will happen. It doesn't.

Jon Voight is the boozing daddy who urges his sons to stick with the force no matter what. He's chief of detectives.

Marking her return to movies after a too-long absence is Jennifer Ehle in the role of Emmerich's dying wife. She has terminal cancer and, for the role, she has shaved her head. Ehle, the daughter of legendary actress Rosemary Harris, makes her home near Winston-Salem, N.C. She is best known for playing Elizabeth Bennet in television's memorable adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."

"Pride and Glory" is the pet project of twin brothers Gavin and Greg O'Connor, whose father was, indeed, a member of the New York Police Department. The movie was long delayed because of the financial fallout of New Line Cinema. It is now released by Warner Bros.

As yet another example of the plot's over-familiarity, Norton's soul searching and Farrell's hot-headedness are not far at all from the brothers played by Pacino and James Caan in "The Godfather."

"Pride and Glory" is more distinctive, but still gloomy, in the way it treats the crumbling edges of Irish American family life. The most harrowing scene is one in which a baby is threatened with a hot iron - a moment that is impossible to forget.

It is clear, though, that "Pride and Glory" yearns to be an epic when actually it is simply a gritty little family drama.

One thing is sure: You will feel worse when you leave the theater than when you entered. It's that dark.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com