End of Watch Review

The police drama End of Watch is the hardest, most honest buddy cop movie you'll ever see. It’s grounded in the everyday relationships of and the very real feelings between cops. It is a film about family; we rely on the police and they in turn rely on each other.

As the story unfolds, we ride along with two beat cops in South Central L.A., Officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pena). They are good cops doing a difficult job. They spend their shifts looking for drugs, guns, and money. They deal with gangs daily, encountering the absolute worst the job has to offer. As Zavala points out, they see more action in a given month than lots of cops do in their entire career. They are forced to make hard decisions regularly, and while their choices may sometimes be questionable we still know they are good men.

The plot revolves around escalating gang tension and a rising Mexican cartel in South Central. This is a character study, though, as filmmaker David Ayer (writer of Training Day) aims to get the story of L.A. cops “right.” He does this by following distinct episodes in these officers’ lives, both in the line of fire and during quieter moments on the job. The story moves in deliberate beats: action, reprieve, action, reprieve. The stakes here are life and death, but these heroes are seen as more than just a Shield. While their work may inform how they see themselves, they are truly defined by their relationships, most significantly to one another.

The cops deal with scumbags and gangsters in the action scenes, but it’s the quieter times with them in their patrol car that are the most fun to watch. These characters are utterly engrossing and their relationship is the film’s core driving force. Gyllenhaal and Pena give fantastic, wholly authentic performances, and the naturalness of their friendship is a joy to behold. Supporting players, notably Anna Kendrick as Officer Taylor's girlfriend Janet, play just as real. There is an intimacy and chemistry between this cast that shines throughout the entire film.

Ayer presents much of the movie in the rawest manner possible and from the points of view of the officers and gang members via shaky cam. We watch through dashboard and surveillance cameras as the action and quieter scenes reveal themselves. It’s not entirely a “found footage” film, but there is an immediacy and freedom in the scenes where this technique is employed. Unfortunately, some of these deeply emotional, camcorder-shot scenes jarringly cut to glossier, more traditionally filmed ones, causing stylistic inconsistencies that hurt the movie. It’s only thanks to the strength of the characters and the cast that the viewer isn’t totally pulled out of the film by these sudden stylistic shifts.

The movie’s insular story may take place over the course of a few months, but it still has a “one crazy day in the life” quality to it. The cops pay lip service to the fact that most of the calls they go on are simple domestic disputes or other mundane police work, but in fact every single action scene depicts insanely tense, life or death situations. You have to remind yourself of the passage of time between events otherwise the story’s believability will suffer.

This is a film propelled by the strength of its characters and how they relate to each other and their world. You can't help but care for them because the movie is so full of heart. End of Watch makes an impact, stressing the important need to recognize that there are real people out there who risk their personal safety for all of us each and every day.

Source : ign[dot]com