Rampart

A Lightstream Pictures, Waypoint Entertainment presentation in colaboration with the 3rd Mind Pictures. (Worldwide sales: Sierra-Affinity.) Created by Lawrence Inglee, Clark Billings, Ben Promote, Ken Kao. Executive producers, Michael DeFranco, Lila Yacoub, Mark Gordon, Paul Currie, Garrett Kelleher. Co-producers, Luca Borghese, Ross Ioppolo. Directed by Oren Moverman. Script, James Ellroy, Moverman.With: Woodsy Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Francis Capra, Ben Promote, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Brie Larson, Audra McDonald, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robert Knowledge, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi, Jon Bernthal, Jon Promote, Stella Schnabel, Sammy Boyarsky.Casting a cynical backward look at the police scams that rocked La within the late 1990's, author-director Oren Moverman ("The Messenger") and resident crime-fiction specialist James Ellroy deliver a highly-wrought but significantly narrow account of the scuzzy cop's personal and professional meltdown in "Rampart." Woodsy Harrelson is great like a cynical, trigger-happy officer oblivious towards the fresh winds of change and accountability sweeping through his embattled department. But as the film is drenched in atmosphere and packs a verbal and visceral punch, its relentless volitile manner creates an overdetermined, not entirely satisfying character study with modest niche-release prospects. The title alone would appear to promise a dense, meaty ensemble piece analyzing the huge network of corruption and misconduct that found light inside the La Police Dept.'s Rampart division, that a lot more than 70 cops were billed with functions of unprovoked brutality, evidence falsification along with other crimes. But while Ellroy has written lots of books within this intricate, layer-by-seedy-layer vein (and formerly co-scripted the 2008 L.A. corrupt-cops thriller "Street Nobleman"), his collaboration with Moverman keeps the scams largely without anyone's knowledge from the Rampart cop who drives the film's every scene. It's 1999, and Officer Dork Brown (Harrelson) is really a rough-justice type whose 24 years about the pressure have trained him involve bending the guidelines every once in awhile. Early moments provide a quick sketch of the charismatically crooked figure, from his combative associations together with his fellow officials, laced with delicately racist and chauvinist put-downs, to his strangely functional associations together with his ex-spouses (Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon), who still accept him and every possess a daughter by him. (Also, they are siblings.) It's implied that Dave's fierce protectiveness of his kids partially motivated his alleged killing of the serial rapist years back. That tendency for boundary-pushing violence again rears its mind when Dork chases lower and frequently beats a suspect, an action caught on video and quickly disseminated in the news, threatening to fire up the kind of Rodney King-like embarrassment the LAPD does not need within the wake of Rampart. Soon he's being pressed to retire by assistant da Joan Confrey (a marvelous Sigourney Weaver), probably the most satisfying of the numerous distaff nemeses Dork squares served by these guys Linda Fentress (Robin Wright), a foxy defense lawyer whom he ill-advisedly accumulates inside a bar. Tightening the noose round his own neck, Dork surprises a trio of armed thieves inside a tense, terse setpiece that invites the scrutiny of D.A. Investigator Kyle Timkins (Ice Cube). After making some off-color insinuations about Timkins, Dork provides a very cynical self-justification: "Keep in mind that i'm not really a racist. Generally I dispise everybody.Inch The sensation would appear to become mutual, as everybody you never know Dork activates him within the film's other half. Pic a lot more than bears the intelligence and moral toughness of Moverman's 2009 pointing debut, "The Messenger," that also featured Harrelson and Ben Promote (almost unrecognizable because a destitute informant). But that can be a film were built with a searching quality that uncovered new depths in each and every scene, "Rampart" appears to choke off feeling because it progresses, as though the filmmakers, getting determined humanity's cynical equation, had nothing left to provide psychologically. Getting spent its first half establishing its antihero for defeat, the pic has nowhere to visit but lower, punching the same punishing note to ever-diminishing returns. But even if he appears to stay in permanent moral free-fall, Harrelson keeps you watching his unmanageable energy and demon-may-care attitude make Dork as pleasant because he is wretched, and the refusal to buckle to forces of political correctness and hypocrisy instructions some admiration. Harrelson slimmed lower by 25 pounds to experience a man who, the overall status of cops notwithstanding, has very little time to consume, and the dedication is displayed in a number of sex moments performed having a complete lack of vanity. Except for one immersive latenight club sequence, the raw, handheld lensing and fleet editing never call focus on themselves within the expert tech package. The city's sun-bleached outside undertake a tough, hellish cast in d.p. Bobby Bukowski's color-saturated HD lensing, and also the pic fairly teems with local atmosphere, particularly in its number of moments in the original Tommy's hamburger joint at a corner of Beverly and Rampart.Camera (color, widescreen, HD), Bobby Bukowski editor, Jay Rabinowitz music, Dickon Hinchliffe music supervisor, Jim Black production designer, David Wasco art director, Austin Gorg set decorator, Sandy Wasco costume designer, Catherine George seem (Dolby Digital), Lisa Pinero seem designer/supervisory seem editor, Javier Bennassar effects coordinator, Larz Anderson visual effects supervisor, Dottie Starling visual effects, Wildfire Visual Effects stunt coordinator, Tim Trella connect producers, Charlie O'Carroll, William Paul Clark assistant director, William Paul Clark casting, Laura Rosenthal, Rachel Tenner. Examined at Toronto Film Festival (Special Presentations), Sept. 10, 2011. Running time: 103 MIN. Contact Justin Chang at justin.chang@variety.com