TRAINING DAY
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Distributed by: Warner Bros.

Date: 10/26/01
By: Rice

It's been forever since I've stepped into a movie theater now that summer's drawing its curtains. Traditionally, you have the multi-million dollar blockbusters from May-July, while in August-October, you get a big letdown period before the yearly Oscar contenders rear their heads. We're currently in late October, and with recent "releases" (read: crap) like Corky Romano and Glitter, you can see why I've found little attraction to my local student-friendly AMC.

The good news is that the aforementioned letdown timespan is nearing its last breath, and bearable films are opening up to the public. One of them is Training Day, and tagging it as merely bearable is doing it a great injustice. It's the grittiest, no-holds barred drug / corruption movie I've seen since the Oscar winning Traffic. Powered by Denzel Washington as you've never seen him before, Training Day takes you deep into the jungle that is South Central Los Angeles, following the exploits of a street-tested narcotics cop showing a rookie the ropes on the beat.

Let me show you the power of the dark side. *CHOKE*

You've all seen the trailers. The beloved coach from Remember the Titans now sports a gotee, gold necklaces, and dual chrome magnum pistols. Just a tough narc officer? So thought newbie Jake Hoyt, played by Ethan Hawke, until he suspects his boss may be liking his job a wee bit too much. "I'm the POE-LEECE! King Kong ain't got SHIT on ME!"

When director Antoine Fuqua plays his cards right and shuffles around the blurry gray area of what constitutes a good cop / bad cop, Training Day is Oscar worthy material. For a good two thirds of the movie, Fuqua stays on track brilliantly. Alonzo alternates between hazing Hoyt (when was the last time your boss stopped in the middle of an intersection and pulled a gun on you?) and teaching him the laws of the streets via colorful anecdotes and metaphors. "Are you a wolf or a sheep? *HOWL!*"

Rookies get the clean-up job.

The audience is continually whisked around the seedier side of Los Angeles in "the office": a spit shined, pitch black, classic Monte Carlo cruiser. You get treated to lavish residences of drug kingpins, popluar street corners where quick dope exchanges are made, and even an apparent second family Alonzo is raising in the worst part of South Central. For the first hour or so, I was enraptured, trying to soak in the flurry of graphic images and the unique, walking contradiction of Denzel's character.

However, the latter third of Training Day degenerates into a somewhat confusing and irrational cesspool of a plot. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that the sensitive tango in the aforementioned gray area gets compromised, and becomes rather clear cut black and white. It's unfortunate in the sense that I can understand why it's done; most big budget Hollywood films require good to ultimately triumph over evil in one manner or another. It's the fail-proof general crowd pleasing formula. Now, I can accept that fact if a movie sets the premise as such in the very beginning (i.e. there is a clear cut bad guy vs. a clear cut hero), but Training Day doesn't market iself as such.

Denzel and Ethan share a moment of bonding.

Let me see if I can make myself more coherant. Much of the movie plays on the uncertainty of what will end up w/ Hoyt and Alonzo. We're left in limbo wondering if Alonzo is simply in a unique bind and is resorting to shady behavior because he has no other option, or maybe that's just the way he plays his cards, and Hoyt will crumble under his intimidation and file in as his Padawan learner. Denzel's character was never explicitly spelled out as being good or bad (as a matter of fact, neither was Hawke's), and it's that mysterious quality that made it such an engaging film as long as the mystery remained. In other words, I wish Training Day kept us in limbo to the very end, rather than (pardon the pun) cop out and conclude in a rather predictable Hollywood fashion.

Regardless, this is still hands down the best film out in the popular theaters right now. The cast and various cameos were nothing short of A+, and there's already an early buzz regarding a Best Actor nomination for Mr. Washington, who clearly was enjoying his over-the-top portrayal of Alonzo Harris. Ethan Hawke carried his own weight more than adequately as well, which somewhat surprised me since he looked kind of wooden in the trailers. I definitely recommend catching Training Day if you hadn't already, before the flurry of holiday releases start to flood this diamond in the rough out of its trough.

Oh no. You did NOT just put three holes in my car...

Grade: A-
-- Denzel Washington is one of the best working actors out there right now, and again proves his mettle in Training Day.

Babe-o-meter: B+
-- There was a quick, gratuitous nude scene near the end that accounted soley for this B+ rating.