TRAINING DAY ------------
Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke, "Snow Falling on Cedars") has one day to prove to new senior partner Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) that he has what it takes to be a NARC in his quest to advance to police detective. In 24 hours, Jake will experience the ultimate corruption of a cop who's lost his soul to the environment he originally served and protected in "Training Day."
Director Antoine Fuqua ("The Replacement Killers") takes to the streets of South Central, Watts, Inglewood, and the Imperial Courts housing project to give his film authenticity, but screenwriter David Ayer ("The Fast and the Furious") trots out too much evil to believably comprehend within his dawn to dead-of-night structure. Given that limitation, Denzel Washington gives a performance that glints like steel while Ethan Hawke meets him head-on.
Jake's day begins when Alonzo calls him at home, instructs him to skip roll call and meet him at an inner city breakfast joint. Jake's attempts at small talk are rebuffed as Alonzo immediately challenges the young man to show his mettle. College kids hitting the bad part of town to score pot are shaken down at gun point, relieved of their weed and let go, then Jake's told to smoke the stuff, as a true NARC needs to understand drugs first hand. Jake allows himself to be convinced before he's told that the pot was laced with PCP.
In a move that will prove fortuitous later, Jake single handedly saves a young Latina from rape at the hands of two junkies. Once again, Alonzo delivers street justice, beating the men senseless, but not arresting them. When Alonzo's methods with a wheelchair bound pusher (Snoop Dog) prove effective, Jake begins to come around, but it's short lived. Jake learns that Alonzo's in trouble, having pushed the Russian mob too far by killing one of their own in Las Vegas, and Alonzo's willing to go to any length to pay his debt and remain the street czar of the inner city.
Washington proves here that he's as fine an actor playing compromised evil as he is at the noble, heroic roles he usually takes on. He initially seduces the audience along with Jake, soothingly smoothing over his radical actions with rhetoric like his signature line, 'to protect the sheep you gotta kill the wolf and it takes a wolf to kill the wolf.' But Washington always keeps us unbalanced as well, punctuating his words with an underhanded snicker. Hawke is the real surprise, going toe to toe with Washington while providing our point of view. Hawke makes Jake an idealized young man who toughens up first for the wrong, then the right, reasons as he realizes he must trust his own instinct and principles.
Support is terrific in many small roles too numerous to mention. Macy Gray is a standout as a dragon lady of a dealer's wife reacting to a falsified warrant. Cliff Curtis ("Blow") is the only creditted member of a Latino threesome Alonzo leaves Jake with - ironically the four actors provide the best scene in the film without Washington, although ultimately Ayer leaves them to end the bit on a note that plays too much like a fairy tale.
Director of Photography Mauro Fiore ("Driven") smoothly captures the action, from both within Alonzo's menacing black 1978 Monte Carlo low rider and outside as it glides over the orange-hued, rain slicked streets of sunset. He maintains the tension in the interiors of South Central and the hidden domains of the LAPD's underground. Production designer Naomi Shohan ("American Beauty") maintains a shadow world (even when brightly lit) rooted in reality, which Mark Mancina's ("Speed") score reflects by placing shivery highlights over the ethnic music of the neighborhoods. Fuqua's direction is confident, delivering not just the style seen in his "The Replacement Killers," but the substance of full characterizations as well.
"Training Day" is a good film held back from greatness by the excesses of its script.
B-
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