Pride and Glory Movie Review

“Pride and Glory,” directed by Gavin O’Connor (“Tumbleweeds,” “Miracle”), plods across familiar ground. It’s yet another movie about the fraternal disorder of the police, in which a gaggle of brothers, professionally sworn to enforce the law and tribally committed to one another, weep and rage and recriminate against a backdrop of urban chaos. Jon Voight — his face as pink as a Christmas ham, his acting in the same food group — is the patriarch of this particular clan, a New York Police Department chieftain named Francis Tierney.

Francis’s older son, Frannie (Noah Emmerich), commands a rough precinct in Washington Heights. Frannie’s brother, Ray (Edward Norton), once a hotshot detective, has withdrawn a little from career and family, making his home on a leaky boat and tending to a scar on his face. Frannie and Ray have a sister named Megan (Lake Bell), whose main function in this highly male-dominated movie is to be married to Jimmy Egan, a hotheaded street cop whose hobbies include breeding, smoking, football and — since he’s played by Colin Farrell — jittery displays of misdirected intensity.

But Jimmy is also, and most consequentially, mixed up in some dirty illegal business. Right under Frannie’s nose he has assembled a squad of thugs and shakedown artists who work with the city’s nastiest drug dealers. After four officers are killed during a raid gone bad, Ray is persuaded by his dad to head up the investigation, which leads him toward Jimmy and his crew, and also leads to some breathless shouting matches.

“Pride and Glory,” which sat on the New Line Cinema shelves for a few years, is not especially good, but there is enough rough artistry in Mr. O’Connor’s direction to make you wish the film were better. He has a good sense of the city’s wearying, exhilarating energy and an impressive ability to pull off arresting visual compositions in close quarters. Many of the indoor scenes have a raw, dangerous intimacy that keeps your attention even when the dialogue tumbles toward cliché.

And the story, while none too fresh — especially if you’ve already seen “We Own the Night” — has a certain rough potency. Written by Mr. O’Connor and Joe Carnahan (with story credits to Mr. O’Connor, his brother Gregory and Robert Hopes, a former New York City policeman), “Pride and Glory” relies a little too much on expository shouting, but there are nonetheless some fine details and powerful, tense scenes. The best stuff can be found around the edges of the main family drama, in subplots and in the supporting performances of Shea Whigham and John Ortiz (as two of Jimmy’s minions) and Jennifer Ehle (as Frannie’s wife, Abbie, who is dying of cancer).

Mr. Norton and Mr. Farrell, unfortunately, play to their weaknesses. Ray — an intellectual as well as a warrior; a gentle avenger with a troubled conscience; kind to children and tough on bad guys — brings out the full measure of Mr. Norton’s vanity, by far his least appealing attribute. Mr. Farrell, meanwhile, once again indulges his blustery mixture of menace and charm, overdoing both. He threatens a baby with a hot iron, but on the other hand he loves his children. It seems plausible that this guy would lead a thuggish criminal enterprise, but not that he could keep it secret for more than 10 minutes.

The third point of the brotherly triangle, Mr. Emmerich’s Frannie, is the sharpest. Even though Mr. O’Connor never fully dramatizes the bonds of loyalty, love and envy that bind Jimmy, Frannie and Ray, Mr. Emmerich conveys the full nature of his character’s uneasy mix of decency and cowardice. While Mr. Voight, Mr. Norton and Mr. Farrell do most of the screaming (and shooting), he quietly and guilelessly steals the movie. If only it were worth a little more.

Rating: 3 stars on 5

“Pride and Glory” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has violence, swearing, drug references and a bit of pointless nudity.