Pride and Glory

Gavin O’Connor’s Pride and Glory is definitely a familiar movie with a familiar plot. Having said that, many would call it an ordinary film that does nothing exceptional you can credit it with. But it still manages to be moody, unsettling and well acted.
The father-son cop duo is a tested plot that is almost always sure to work. Well, at least in this case, it does work. Jon Voight plays top cop Francis Tierney, whose two sons Ray (played by Edward Norton) and Francis Jr. (played by Noah Emmerich) and son-in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell), are all policemen as well.
When four other cops are killed in a drug bust gone wrong, Ray finds himself dealing with the case—and with his life.
At least if you discount the over-acted scenes, the movie is a success, though not a runaway one. It can even entertain you if you are in the mood to be pleased. The other quibble is that Pride and Glory has so much bad news piled on that you can scarcely breathe through the action. I mean, if nothing works out for any of these characters, you’d understand completely.
On the plus side, the look and feel is gritty, emotional, and there is a sure ring of the truth. This one is going to catch you, perhaps, with its unusual spin on loyalty—whom—would you choose: the force or the family. The movie will also probably ring true to many who are already tired of the usual Hollywood good cop-bad cop routine. Though an otherwise decent film, it is almost destroyed by the seemingly interminable last 15 minutes.