Movie Review: "Rampart" Retreads

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 26 March 2012 15:20

Written by Renzo Adler

Rampart
directed by Oren Moverman
starring Woody Harrelson

Both a hard-boiled cop drama and a bizarre piece of nostalgia for LA circa 1990s, Woody Harrelson's latest film, Rampart, again displays a darker side of the former Cheers bartender. That's not to say Harrelson hasn't done some majorly dark roles before -- witness his star turn in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (written by Quentin Tarentino).

As Officer Brown, Harrelson plays a good-ol-boy cop and hardened Vietnam vet that was previously embroiled in scandal because he may or may not have killed a serial date-rapist in an act of vigilantism.  Now he is again under scrutiny after savagely beating a driver that rammed into Brown’s vehicle. He lives with two sisters [who] (played by Anne Heche and Cynthia Nixon) that he fathered a child from each of, which we learn about in an adorable bit of exposition where the youngest daughter ask if she’s inbred [fix].

But rather than spending time with his family, Brown usually goes to bars and picks up women while escaping from the brutish realities (or delusions) that the world is out to get him [fix].

Over time he struggles to redeem himself as an officer and father, while sinking further into an abyss of drinking, womanizing, hatred and paranoia. Harrelson’s Brown combines confident swagger and deep-seated bitterness with a childish rage.  

There are times when Brown’s deterioration really feels palpable.  There is a scene where Brown is talking to his daughter Helen (Brie Larson), who is now embracing counter-culture and despises her father, and he asks her if she remembers a song they made up together when she was little.  We’re left wondering if this is a man whose family has shunned him, or if he is really delusional enough to be constructing memories.  

Shot in a faux-verite style, the film at first feeds into the theme of watching and being watched. But after a while you feel dizzy and want to tell the camera operator to sit down and stay still. A film can be gritty and doc-like without perpetually shaking camera action.  

Based on LA Confidential scribe James Ellroy's novel [name], Rampart feels like it harbors too many of the clichés and motifs from a hard-boiled fiction writer. While not necessarily bad, Rampart offers few surprises or much of anything new.  Training Day’s hard hitting LA, Falling Down’s modern disillusionment, All the President’s Men conspiracy theories, are all mashed together with an after-taste of Rolling Thunder’s jaded Vietnam vets. 

The strength of the co-stars varies. Steve Buscemi plays slimy politician, but is seen so briefly that the performance feels more like a cameo than a complete character study. Sigourney Weaver’s part as an LAPD administrator is played with a certain vigor that makes her scenes stand-out. Ned Beatty plays a retired cop that Brown confides in and does the part with a giddy malice and disdain for the new and confusing world around him.

Rampart is ultimately about a deeply flawed man’s deteriorating in the face of an un-sympathetic society. The film builds on Brown’s downward spiral but takes the easy way out with an ending that leaves too much unresolved. Whether you feel sympathy or despise him, the film at least makes you feel something for Brown in some way. 

It’s a good film for those looking to see familiar locales from LA crime dramas, but doesn’t offer much in the way of anything new.

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