Black and Blue

Black and Blue

Starring Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Frank Grillo, Mike Colter

Directed by Deon Taylor

The Story:
Alicia West (Naomie Harris) grew up in New Orleans, but left the city to join the military and spent two tours in Afghanistan before returning to her hometown and working as a police officer in hopes of making the town a better place.  Three weeks into the job and she volunteers to take a double shift and ends up at an abandoned factory, where she witnesses narcotics detective Terry Malone (Frank Grillo) kill three drug dealers in cold blood.  She's shocked, but also catches the event on her body cam, which leads to Terry's partner shooting her several times, but all connecting with her bulletproof vest.

She manages to escape, and Terry sets out to find her - and the body cam - at any cost.  Alone in the town she once grew up in and not being able to trust her fellow police officers nor the town's residents who despise her for being a cop, she turns to childhood friend Milo (Tyrese Gibson), who reluctantly agrees to help her get the body cam to the police station and upload the video before Terry and his men kill her.  Things get even more complicated when Terry frames her for the murder, bringing in drug kingpin Darius (Mike Colter) - whose nephew was killed by Terry - to put a bounty on her head.

The Synopsis:
"Black and Blue" is a film that focuses on the all-too-modern fears that African Americans face in America today - crooked cops.  There's hardly a week where we don't see on the news an unarmed black man being shot to death by a police officer, and the uproar is palpable - so much so that the police force is now requiring their officers to wear body cams to capture everything on film. It's under this very tense moment in time director Deon Taylor released "Black and Blue," and while it does shed important light on the fears of minorities in America, once the action starts, that all gets thrown away for the sake of a tense cat-and-mouse game - which isn't entirely bad, but also provides several "false" endings that makes the film feel longer than it should.

Alicia West is a newbie to the New Orleans police force, and is also African American, so the community already sees her as an enemy, despite her own mistreatment at the hands of her fellow boys in blue (the film opens with two police officers accosting her for jogging on the street, before realizing she's also a cop).  It's clear from the start that she doesn't entirely fit in with either the police force or the general public, and doesn't seem to have any family left alive she can turn to either, and it's under this already heavy weight that she discovers a crooked cop killing three unarmed drug dealers on her body cam, and instead of turning it over to them, decides to expose them for the criminals they are.  This results in not just the crooked police force trying to track her down, but the drug dealers as well, who hold her responsible for the murders.  She truly has no one to turn to, except for a childhood friend named Milo, who is also hesitant to help her.  Deon Taylor truly gives you a sense of hopelessness in Alicia, but also a sense of determination to tell the truth at any cost - but still it's rough seeing her trying to find at least one ally in her corner.

Oscar nominee Naomie Harris performs brilliantly, giving Alicia that delicate balance of strength and isolation, as she navigates the streets of New Orleans without anyone to turn to, and seeing how she never gives up on her determination to do the right thing is really inspiring - if not downright depressing as well.  Doing the right thing shouldn't be so tough, but unfortunately sometimes it is, and Harris shows this steely resolve throughout the film.

While the film is truly Harris's to own, her co-stars manage to fall under their typical nearly typecast roles.  Tyrese Gibson is the wrong-side-of-the-tracks-turned-good guy, while Frank Grillo is in his wheelhouse as the gritty, immoral bad guy.  Everyone else serves to come against Alicia West, and they all do decent jobs as they play the bad guys to sheer brilliance where you actively root for their demise.

The cinematography also adds a sense of hopelessness, as New Orleans is shown as destitute and abandoned, a town that really was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina, resulting in blocks of abandoned, dilapidated buildings and apartment complexes that the cops don't even go to anymore.  Each scene is shot in either the dark or through rain-filled lenses, and you can feel the hopelessness in each frame, which only adds to your appreciation for Alicia's plight.  Throw in some intense action sequences and an exciting conclusion that'll have you cheering, you can almost forgive Deon Taylor for his previous abominations in "The Intruder" and "Traffik" - even if the film is all-too-predictable.

The Summary:
With another stellar performance by Naomie Harris, "Black and Blue" tells the often unheard of stories of the fears African Americans face and the sometimes crooked cops who stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden.

The Score: A-