Delayed Reaction: Rampart

Premise: Woody Harrelson is a corrupt L.A. cop in the 90s who everyone has finally fully turned on.

 

If you asked me to describe a Woody Harrelson character in a movie around 2011, I'm pretty sure I'd describe something like his Rampart character. Short tempered. Self-destructive. Carries authority, deserved or not. Works for law enforcement. That's the comfort zone Harrelson has found himself in since moving past his sitcom then traditional leading man phases of his career. So, the end result is that Rampart is a movie that I felt like I'd already seen even though I was sure I hadn't.

 

In general, I love Woody Harrelson. He's probably among my favorite actors who I don't think of as one of my favorite actors. He's never bad in anything. He's in a lot of movies and a large variety of movies. He moves between tentpoles, indies, comedies, and prestige effortlessly. He's been nimble throughout his career. It's easy to think of his career as a single jump from Cheers to movies, but it's actually been a series of reinventions. That said, he's always got the Ramparts as a fallback.

 

I'm not a big fan of movies like Rampart. And I don't mean crooked cop stories. I mean self-destructive character studies. This reminded me a lot of Sherrybaby actually, in that it's an actor I really like playing a character who I have no investment in. Right away, I don't like Officer Rampart*. I don't feel bad for him, and I know that the movie is going to be about his unchecked privilege. I don't mean white privilege. I mean asshole privilege. You know, that thing where assholes get away with a lot because the non-assholes of the world don't have the energy to keep them in check. Also, despite Harrelson's ability to give a character life, Officer Rampart is an example of throwing details at a character until you have a person. The movie kept throwing new tics and complications at me about Officer Rampart like how he hates wasting food or his really complicated home life (his daughters are half-sisters and cousins). It all seemed intentionally messy.

 

*I'm not looking up his name.

 

Finally, the movie plays a little differently now than when it was released. Crooked cops and police brutality make it on the news a lot more now. In 2011, there was some distance from the actual LA Rampart scandal, we were coming off a decade of focus on international policing and wars, and "stand your ground" laws were coming under heavier fire. Now, I'm coming off a summer of BLM protests and questions about White House police's role in the storming of the Capitol building. So, it's feeling a little too close to events right now. It's not Rampart's fault that I watched this a decade later when I didn't have the same appetite for this kind of story, but them's the breaks.

 

Great cast though. I do feel the need to mention that. Director Oren Moverman must've won some fans with The Messenger based on how many familiar actors are in this, often in small roles.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend