Movie Review: Pride and Glory
“Pride and Glory” tells the story of a father, two sons and brother-in-law who live and breathe police work in the NYPD. The history of this Irish family threatens to unravel when a scandal of cop killings, drugs and violence point in the direction of one of their own. The premise sounds promising but “Pride and Glory” was disappointing overall.
If Edward Norton is in a movie I rent it, the guy is one of our great actors and generally movies he is in are high quality. I liked parts of “Pride and Glory”, the acting was good with some standout performances but the screenplay just didn’t work most of the time. The idea of the story was interesting; the start of the movie and action sequences were well done. From there two thirds of the screenplay wandered and didn’t tell us enough about the characters or the story. It almost felt like some of the dialogue was improvised, if so the improvisation did not fit the movie. Fortunately by the last third of the movie the plot line tightened and the movie improved.
The camera work was fairly interesting in the beginning and towards the end of the movie; those scenes are to be commended but some of the editing in the film could have been better. There was a strange camera move in the family Christmas dinner scene where literally the camera is focused on the family around the table then jerks in a zig zag movement. How that particular camera shot got past editing to be left in the final cut of the movie is unfortunate to say the least.
Edward Norton does his best with what he has to work with but this was a good not great performance of his largely due to the script. I’m no big fan of Joh Voight but this was one of Voight’s better performances. Colin Ferrell gives a good performance as son-in-law Jimmy Eagan. Noah Emmerich as Francis Tierney, Jr., Jennifer Ehle as Abby Tierney and John Ortiz as Sandy give standout performances, elevating the movie in the scenes they are involved in.
In the end the direction, editing and screenplay seem to be what bogs this movie down. There are some good action sequences and the acting ensemble provide solid performances. The story is interesting but loses steam throughout the middle of the movie. I’m giving this film a slightly higher rating than it deserves based on the performances of the actors. Be warned there are some violent scenes in the film. If you like action/cop movies you’ll probably enjoy this flick.
2008. Written and directed by Gavin O’Connor. Starring Edward Norton, Colin Farrell, Noah Emmerich, Jennifer Ehle, Jon Voight and John Ortiz.
Rating: 
