17. Felony

October 18th in Chicago. I saw this on demand. An Australian cop drama about right and wrong. The story focuses on three detectives: Mal (Joel Edgerton), the hero; Carl (Tom Wilkinson), the "old school" detective and Jim (Jai Courtney), the young "go-getting," crusader type. The film opens as Mal leads a bust on a drug ring and takes a bullet for his troubles, luckily the vest does its job. He and his unit are out drinking to celebrate their deeds and Mal decides to get behind the wheel and drive home. His blood alcohol level is well over the legal limit.

As Mal makes his way home, Carl meets up with his new partner Jim. Jim is the eager new detective who wants to please the old, bitter and hardened detective Carl. While out rousting a witness, Jim and Carl get a call about a traffic accident. Carl wants nothing to do with it but since Jim is a "go getter," he decides to go. Plus, the scene is relatively close. They arrive to find that a hit and run occurred between a car and a young boy on a bike. Mal is pulled over as a "witness." As Carl questions Mal, he realizes that maybe Mal is more than a witness and sends Jim away. Carl's instincts were correct, Mal is drunk and he struck the boy. Carl tells him to stick to the story. Since he's not a bad person, its ok to let him walk.

Mal is racked with guilt. He eventually tells his wife, a nurse, but she takes the, "what good would it do to come forth" approach. Meanwhile Carl and Jim are going after a pedophile. Carl is convinced the guy's a pedophile but Jim isn't so sure and begins to sour on Carl and goes so far as to start investigating the hit and run on his own. Jim doesn't like what he's finding and he starts to become more and more convinced that Mal is more than a "witness." Mal goes to Carl and tells him he wants to come clean but Carl wants to hear none of it.

The detectives kind of square off against each other, and eventually the boy dies. Mal speaks with Carl and Jim about confessing when it comes out the Jim has been making the moves on the boy's mother. Things get ugly and Carl winds up in the hospital with a lousy prognosis. Mal gets into a single car accident this time and finds himself on the boy's mother's doorstep (I don't want to give away the ending). The film ends with Jim and Mal being partner.

Very good film that was well directed and well acted. The only issues I had was that it sometimes moved too slow. Each of the 3 detectives is flawed in their own way, Carl being the biggest douche. You have to be in the right mindset to watch this film. The film is directed by Matthew Saville, who usually has done Australian sitcoms makes a huge jump to a heavy drama and does a really nice job.