Rampart

Woody Harrelson really has come a long way since Cheers. Rampart marks his second collaboration with director Oren Moverman. Last time, with Iraq-war film The Messenger they received much critical acclaim, an Oscar nomination for Harrelson, and a worldwide audience of around 10 people.

Rampart is possibly Harrelson's best performance of his career, but it's neither an easy character or an easy film to like. He plays Dave Brown, a corrupt, racist cop caught on camera using excessive force on a subject in the midst of the Rampart corruption scandal of the late 90s and the film charts his decline into ever increasing paranoia as he fights to clear his name whilst alienating all those close to him.

It is both a strength and a weakness of the film that we are so tied up with Brown and his point of view that there is little space to work out to what extent he might be being set-up or scapegoated and to what extent he is becoming delusional. The skill of Harrelson's performance is to make a character who is never likeable, engaging enough for the audience to bear with for the running time. He even manages to bring pathos to scenes where his daughters come to visit only to leave pretty immediately.

Harrelson is aided by a strong supporting cast - Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, Anne Heche, Robin Wright and Ice Cube all play minor roles well, but this is Harrelson's movie. It's not perfect, there are scenes that feel unnecessary and confusing, but maybe that is an illustration of Brown's state of mind, and there's maybe not quite enough story to sustain the character.

Overall - 7/10 A very strong central performance and a challenging film, but maybe not enough to it to be great.