James Ellroy's cadre of works on the Los Angeles police department reaches a contemporary setting with Street Kings, borrowing many elements of the writer's previous works and combining them with director David Ayer's gritty vision of modern-L.A. to create a disturbing and grimy crime drama.
Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is by definition a 'dirty' cop, sent in by his superior Wander (Forest Whitaker) to clean up messes other cops have made and setting the seeds for further corruption. However, when one of his former colleagues is assassinated, Ludlow finds himself implicated by an I.A. officer (Hugh Laurie), and must use his skills to root out the real conspirators.
Brooding Reeves Tops Cast
It's not often that Keanu Reeves can be said to be the best thing about a film, but here he is, even amongst acclaimed co-stars. Taking the mysterious air he exudes in such roles as The Matrix, Reeves crafts a performance of anger and resignation, as Tom Ludlow realises his life has been bringing him to such a point and strikes out against it.
Forest Whitaker channels intensity into Ludlow's superior Wander, an officer who covers up the 'dirty' work his officers do, the actor's anger and passion stored to explode in shocking fury. Hugh Laurie's internal affairs cop is the moral centre of the film; the British actor's performance presents both disgust and a sense of duty to find the truth, and it's a shame that none of the other actors can impose themselves as these three have.
Volatile Action and Slippery Plot
With such pedigrees behind them both, an Ellroy/Ayer combination is going to generate a distinctly violent and uncompromising movie, and Kings doesn't disappoint. Gunshots and bullet-wounds pepper the screen; blood splatters and profanity flies around with it. However, any viewer familiar with the Ellroy narrative will begin to see what's coming, and this is the film's undoing.
L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia both manage to lay bare the corruption and betrayal at the heart of Ellroy's L.A., and Kings takes from both, though it somehow suffers in comparison. A modern-day police department could not feasibly have such entrenched corruption, and as a result of both these aspects the story flounders on its twists and revelations.
Kings Worth The Watch
Despite the issues that inevitably crop up in the film (those already mentioned, and the acting of some of the bit-players), the film is by no means a bore, nor a travesty to sit through. Whilst the plot's interconnectivity (like other Ellroy narratives) will confuse some, the violence and wit on display will go someway to displacing any doubts.
Whilst not being comparable in any way to Confidential, a masterpiece in narrative and film-making, Street Kings is yet a movie that any Ellroy fan or action-junkie can enjoy, despite the nagging feeling that it could, and should, have been better.
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