AFI FEST Los Angeles International Film Festival 2009

After RESCUE DAWN, Werner Herzog returns to American genre cinema, this time taking on the mythic, audience-friendly framework of the gritty urban cop film. Working from William Finkelstein’s tightly compelling script, Herzog sets the plot in New Orleans, which allows for a few surreal Herzogian touches—decaying buildings, men communing with alligators. But this dark, shockingly funny drama keeps the focus on the title character, Detective McDonough, who scarfs down narcotics to cope with his back pain—making bets his body can’t cover—while neck-deep in a murder investigation. Nicolas Cage, in one of his strongest performances, invests McDonough with urgency and compassion, and gets terrific support by Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Vondee Curtis-Hall and Brad Dourif. Having positioned himself, in deed and word, as the ultimate Hollywood outsider, Herzog suddenly earns comparison with masters including Don Siegel, Nicholas Ray and Sidney Lumet.

–Larry Gross