Two disappointing legends

Righteous Kill
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Carla Guigino
Director: Jon Avnet
Rating: ** 1/2

Righteous Kill is a weakly-scripted crime caper involving two homicide detectives nearing retirement age.

Director Jon Avnet’s most singular achievement in this film would most definitely be getting the two ageing actors to agree  to take on the challenge of giving life to the sparingly framed characters, Turk and Rooster. After Heat this is their second outing together on screen (although they both star in it, they don’t have a scene together in Godfather II).

Director Jon Avnet and script writer Russell Gewirtz make heavy weather of a plot line that would have been better appreciated, but for its unnecessary convolutions and yawning predictability.

The opening scene has Turk (Robert De Niro) on B&W scratchy videotape, confessing to 14 murders during his 30-plus years of service with the NYPD. Avnet wants us involved in the red-herring so that he can slip in the twist towards the end and for the first 15 minutes it’s quite easy to believe in Turk’s guilt.

The narrative moves back and forth in time with Turk’s description of each of the murders. We also get to see Turk’s interaction with fellow detectives, his quick-to-anger nature, his penchant for showering abuse and his love for aggressive and kinky sex. So you are definitely primed to believe his guilt in the initial stages.

But soon enough, the slips start showing and it’s quite easy to guess that Gewirtz and Avnet are setting the stage for a Shyamalan-like twist in the tale. By then the true picture is quite clear. The rest of the time you are just hoping that the film would reach the climax as speedily as possible.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are comfortable with each other and it shows. In terms of craft, they have very little to do except look serious and mysterious. Jon Avnet would have done better if he had lesser known senior actors playing Turk and Rooster.

At least the burden of expectation wouldn’t be there. Avnet could have aspired for a much more powerful and thought-provoking narrative. The one he employs here does little to thrill. Truly a monumental waste of talent.