Brown is a police officer in the corrupt Rampart district of the late 90's. Having been on the force for over 20 years, Brown has no room left for "good cop" tactics and constantly berates his victims through voice and action. This is probably just a reflection of his horrendous home life, where he married and then divorced two sisters (Cynthia Nixon and Anne Heche) but made a daughter with each (Brie Larson and Sammy Boyarsky). His inability to connect with any of them deepens once he is caught on tape beating a man almost to death after being hit head on by his car. What opens next is an intense internal affairs investigation, what could be a massive conspiracy to get rid of Brown, street urchins potentially blackmailing him, a new lover possibly connected with an alleged murder he committed, and a massive cleaning of house in the Rampart division.
Like many crime thrillers, Rampart has an astonishingly convoluted plot, and like any good noir, is filled with shady characters. There is something about Moverman as a director that allows him to get incredible performance out of his cast. Heche and Nixon are searing as his ex-wives, whose yelling and screaming at him hurt even more because what they say is true. Larson and Boyarsky are the most surprising, giving sharply naturalistic performances in what could of been caricatures instead of three-dimensional figures. As Brown's new bipolar lover, Robin Wright is also devastating. Her and Brown are probably meant for each other, as each end up hurting everyone around them. Sigourney Weaver is also great as Brown's case worker, and even Ice Cube seems right at home portraying a police officer.
But the movie is Harrelson, and he makes it his own in the role of a lifetime. If this movie had a bigger budget and safer content, Harrelson would have been looking at an Oscar nom last year for sure. He is alternately vicious and self-centered to the criminals and citizens around him, but also kind-hearted to his children and the patience of saint when it comes to his ex-wives. In all honesty, he is a bad person through and through, but that doesn't make him a less complicated person. We never know if we are too feel pity for him or just laugh at his self-constructed circumstances. Brown is always a few seconds away from exploding, he feels dangerous yet this macho shell is surprisingly brittle as the film shows us towards the end. One word of his daughters' disappointment in him sends him reeling unlike any police investigation can.
Moverman, whose debut film The Messenger was equalling searing and intense as this one, looks at Brown with intense, almost documentary like precision. The movie's canvas is a sun-scorched Los Angeles, where you can almost taste the asphalt, feel the heat, and see the eyes of its multi-racial populous on you constantly. It is a credit to Moverman that he creates such an atmosphere, complementing nicely with such a volatile character as Brown. The cinematography is his biggest asset, utilizing handheld techniques and lens flares to create a sense or constant unease. The editing is also perfect for this kind of character and film, consistently changing pace and tone along with Brown's mood. From a comfortable scene with Brown and his youngest daughter, to a nightmarish, drug-induced rave outing, Moverman is unflinching in his observation of Brown through radical editing changes.
Rampart isn't all just doom and gloom though, it contains some scathing comedy from Harrelson. His intelligence exceeds his pay grade much to the disgust of his accusers, and his surprisingly articulate stance and bountiful life experience makes him fascinating to watch. He pervades questions hilariously with fake law cases (or maybe real) and quotes from officers before him. He can almost seem like a drop-out law student, too wild to be caged up behind a desk so he resorted to being a beat cop. The first third in particular presents this with sometimes horrifying comedy, and the result is a character who seems all the more intelligent for it.
For better, and sometimes worse, the movie is the character at its center. Like Brown, the film can drag in places and seem nonsensical in others. Characters are left wildly up in the air and not given the expected scene of redemption like most Hollywood fare. These flaws can be seen as virtues in a movie like this, every fault to one viewer will seem a stroke of genius to another. But if you open up to Moverman's rhythm, and Harrelson's career-best performance, you will see that Rampart is a rewarding viewing experience.
Overall: With an astonishing performance from Woody Harrelson and unflinching direction from Ore Moverman, Rampart succeeds quite well as darker than dark character study. A-
