Black and Blue: Good Cop/Bad Cop Drama Mines Headlines for Thematic Thrust

By Kim Hughes

Rating: B

Race relations, police brutality and corruption, and the still-forsaken state of post-Katrina New Orleans is a lot of thematic heft for one movie. But actioner Black and Blue tackles it all while managing to follow a fairly compelling if somewhat predictable storyline that’s buoyed by highly committed performances.

Alicia West (Briton Naomie Harris playing a thoroughly credible American) is a war veteran and rookie cop still finding her feet within the force. From the start, it’s clear her choice to be a police officer has alienated her from the larger black community, ergo the film’s title (which should probably be Black or Blue no?)

Indeed, as Alicia learns when pulling an overtime shift with a fellow black officer, the wearing of police-issued blue threads instantly negates race-based camaraderie, especially in deeply divided New Orleans. An early scene where Alicia attempts small talk with a kid on a skateboard draws unwarranted ire from the kid’s mother who, it turns out, was once Alicia’s friend but now runs with a rough crowd. And hates cops.

As the film’s spoiler-ish trailer reveals, Alicia witnesses three of her fellow officers killing some young drug dealers. Those crooked cops very much want Alicia’s bodycam footage destroyed and they’re willing and able to leverage help from many others on the force. But Alicia sees murder as murder and wants to turn the footage in.

In short order, she is on the run in the very neighbourhood where being a cop is tantamount to being a target despite her skin colour. Actually, maybe even more so. Only one person is willing to help the frightened and wounded Alicia try and outrun her cop pursuers and the local thugs who’ve been hoodwinked by the bad cops into thinking Alicia killed the kids. Everyone wants Alicia dead.

Black and Blue sidelines into white-on-black police harassment and general cop lawlessness against the grim backdrop of ravaged New Orleans and the effect is unsettling if perhaps oversimplified for the sake of the film’s running time.

On the plus side, director Deon Taylor and veteran screenwriter Peter A. Dowling blessedly spare us a tacked-on romance between Alicia and her gentle giant sidekick, beleaguered store manager Mouse (Tyrese Gibson) instead exploring how do-gooders can and must prevail despite high personal costs and serious danger.

If the crowd at the advance screening was any indication — they cheered when comeuppance was meted out — Black and Blue will find its audience and it’s an entertaining enough way to kill a couple of hours. Broader societal reckoning might be too much to hope for.

Black and Blue. Directed by Deon Taylor. Starring Naomie Harris, Tyrese Gibson, Frank Grillo, Nafessa Williams and Reid Scott. Opens wide October 25.