Manhattan Adult Entertainment: Brooklyn’s Finest’
Hawke has been quietly devoting his career to playing desperate men driven to extreme measures (he played similar roles in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” and “What Doesn’t Kill You”), and he’s in top-notch form here, making you share in the constant anxiety and frustration of a man torn between providing for his family and upholding the law. In the film’s best scene, he delivers a terrific monologue as to why cops should feel free to dip into the stacks of money drug dealers leave lying around before they are confiscated and placed into evidence. Yes, it’s highly illegal, but Sal makes a convincing argument.
The other leads – Richard Gere as a veteran seven days away from retirement and Don Cheadle as a narcotics officer who has spent too long undercover and is starting to lose his bearings – don’t fare nearly so well, because their characters are pure cliche. Gere’s troubled loner wakes up in the morning by taking a swig of bourbon, and his only friend is a prostitute. Cheadle feels guilty about having to betray the drug kingpin (a terrific Wesley Snipes) who considers him a brother.