Mark Reviews Movies: LINE OF DUTY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 14, 2019

In Line of Duty, a cop races against the clock to save a kidnapping victim from certain death, while screenwriter Jeremy Drysdale races to turn a silly movie into a patently ridiculous one. They both succeed.

The cop is Frank Penny (Aaron Eckhart), who is suspended after shooting one kidnapping suspect following a lengthy, seemingly never-ending foot chase. The chase, as it turns out, doesn't actually end there. There's another kidnapper, who has abducted the daughter of the chief of police (played by Giancarlo Esposito) and has her trapped in a glass box that will fill with water in 64 minutes.

Despite his administrative leave, Frank takes it upon himself to find the girl. Along for the ride is Ava (Courtney Eaton), a young and idealistic internet journalist who discovers what's happening and convinces Frank to let her follow him. She records everything that follows on an improbably sturdy cellphone.

While the movie begins with dread severity, it quickly shifts gears to become a mismatched-buddy comedy with a message. The gist of the relationship is that Frank learns the media can be good and Ava learns that not all cops are bad—despite the facts that Frank has pointed a loaded gun at her head (while another cop stands by and lets it happen), repeatedly puts her and others in unnecessary peril, steals a surprising number of cars, and accidentally sets the kidnapper off on a killing spree.

The whole affair plays out close to real-time, which means there's a lot of filler here—from the opening chase to a wholly useless TV news producer (played by Dina Meyer), who just decides to broadcast Ava's livestream as it happens. The actual comedy, which relies a lot on Frank's ignorance of modern technology, is tired. The action just has characters doing the same fighting moves over and over again in different locales. The main characters are so dumb and irresponsible that it's a marvel they don't become part of the movie's high body count.

The only fun here is in witnessing how ludicrous Drysdale and director Steven C. Miller—who, despite the inconsistencies of tone and the ample shortcomings of the plot, obviously believe we should take this seriously—can make this simple, straightforward story. Basically, the comedy of Line of Duty doesn't earn any laughs, but everything else about it certainly does.

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