Night Falls on Manhattan

CinemaSerf

This film starts and ends with some lovely jazz, thereafter it is all rather an unremarkable crime thriller. When a drug dealer kills three cops and then escapes in a patrol car, the District Attorney "Morgie" (Ron Liebman) announces that when the perpetrator is apprehended, he is going to be prosecuted by the newly qualified lawyer (and ex-cop) son of one of those officers seriously injured by the attacker. "Casey" (Andy Garcia) is that man, and after a curiously far-fetched turn of events finds himself facing the killer in court and next thing, he is DA himself and party to an investigation into police corruption that might well lead to his own nearest and dearest. To be honest, I found this whole thing all just too convenient. It's all just a bit too "nice" and the courtroom scenes at the start which also feature Richard Dreyfuss are really underwhelming. The plot is messy and the conclusion really lacks, well, substance. It looks good and combined with the score is effective at creating a New York that is seedy and immoral - but Garcia just hasn't the gravitas to pull this off and Ian Holm (his father "Liam") is no great shakes either. It's watchable on the telly on a wet winter's evening, but that's about the height of it, sorry.