Review: 'Rampart', starring Woody Harrelson and Robin Wright

With 2009's The Messenger, the trio of writer/director Oren Moverman along with actors Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, presented a gripping character driven drama that took presented a look at an oft-ignored segment of the military. The three noticeably bonded during the experience, with Foster and Moverman starting their own production house, and the promise of similarly insightful films on the horizon. With crime novelist James Ellroy as co-writer, the three jump into some familiar territory with Rampart, featuring a devastating, feral performance by Harrelson that makes this a film that simply can not be missed.

Harrelson has always been something of an odd bird as an actor, often at his best when playing the morally bankrupt. Set in the 1990s when the Los Angeles police department was drowning in a new scandal seemingly every week, Harrelson plays "Date Rape" Dave Brown, a Vietnam War vet with his a code of justice only he can understand. A relic of a dying age, Brown sees himself as some sort of entitled savior. The judge, jury, and occasional executioner of the "bad people" in the world, which to his warped way of thinking could be anybody. As delusional as he is dangerous, Dave is the type who can make a racial slur while claiming to not be a racist. "I hate all people", he boldly claims.

Continually reaping the whirlwind in both his professional and personal life, Brown is a nightmare to his superiors who don't need the publicity of a rogue cop staying in the local news with his rogue behavior.  He only makes matters worse with one poorly planned criminal undertaking after another in hopes of scoring some quick cash. His financial situation is made worse by his living arrangement, staying next door to his two ex-wives(Cynthia Nixon and Anne Heche) who also happen to be sisters. Family dinner? Yeah, it's pretty awkward. The family, especially Dave's oldest daughter(Brie Larson) have been ripped apart by his public antics.

Dave is a fascinating, compelling character, and Harrelson has never been better. He's basically a car crash taken human form, a man with an obsessive devotion to his profession, even as he corrodes it from the inside. His arrogance and perceived mental superiority, gained irrationally through a failed attempt at passing the bar exam, blinds him to the Hell of his own design. An attempted relationship with an investigator(Robin Wright) looking into police corruption cases is rocky from the start thanks to his own paranoia, and even his old mentor(Ned Beatty) is beginning to see Dave as a lost cause.

Ellroy, whose gritty tales of corrupt boys in blue have made for some terrific films in the past, yet despite Harrelson's epic performance, Rampart never really gets off the ground in the way it should. Something feels missing, and it may have something to do with us never really seeing what has turned Dave into such a chauvinistic, prejudiced pariah. Dave's losing battle against a world he no longer fits in makes for some dynamic moments, especially his showdown with an equally confident investigator played by Ice Cube. Other actors get considerably less to play with, particularly Sigourney Weaver as a police psychologist, and Ben Foster as a homeless war vet in a very minor role.Ultimately, Harrelson at his most visceral is enough to raise Rampart over other dirty cop flicks that have tapped into some of the same ideas.