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Must See Movie...

Great Film overall

good back-story, and good acting

Set in Sydney, this absorbing Australian psychological drama gets fine performances from its' three leads, Tom Wilkinson, Joel Edgerton (who also wrote the screenplay), and Jai Courtney.Edgerton portrays Detective Mal Toohey, who after a police celebration of a successful task force operation that he led, gets behind the wheel "under the influence". He ends up side-swiping a 9-year-old boy riding his bicycle, who's knocked unconscious to the pavement. Detective Toohey stops and calls emergency services but doesn't reveal it was he who hit the boy.Detectives Summer (Wilkinson) and Malic (Courtney) come upon the scene and begin to investigate. Detective Summer is a hardened veteran, who knows Toohey, and believes that the police need to protect their own no matter what. However, Detective Malic is a young and idealistic officer, who believes in finding out the truth no matter what the consequences.Over the next three days, as the young boy lies in a coma in the hospital, they'll be many surprises and twists and turns to come in the film, which I thought were quite engrossing and kept me engaged.Australian filmmaker Matthew Saville handles the direction here and, as mentioned Edgerton wrote the script.In summary, I wasn't, to be honest, thrilled with the ending per se, but overall I thought this was a pretty decent and engaging police psychological drama.

What is the problem with making a decent film in this country? I started watching this movie and it seemed as though I was in for a decent watch. The camera work - the direction - the acting - even the script - seemed good. Then I realised that there was to be absolutely no depth to the narrative. No plot. It was 90 minutes of grown men wasting my time - wrangling about this? So these filmmakers are going to take up an hour and a half of my life because some guy clipped a paperboy on his way home from a pub? That's the movie? Thats it? I mean I know if you hit someone - it's no joke - but you're going to base an ENTIRE feature length film on this? Couldn't these bloody useless cops be out catching ACTUAL criminals? You have movies about ACTUAL STUFF out there - and this is our Australian level of contribution? This was so utterly lame - so clichéd and predictable. You have the cop who has the crisis of faith and starts going to the hospital to visit the sick kid - you have the old cop who does a favour for a mate - you have the guy who's life is turned upside down - you have the stoic Indian woman hoping against hope in her hospital vigil - you have journalists and helicopters hovering around a kid who's fallen off his bike? Gimme a break will ya? Why can't you people make a film Australians can be proud of? No wonder the moment an Australian artist has a hit - the first thing they do is bail to another country! Absolutely horrible. Horrible...

From Australia comes this very well written and acted, tense drama that is particularly attuned to our times – the recently noted role of the police force involved in criminal activity and brutality. Written by actor Joel Edgerton who also stars this is storytelling on the first order – well worth viewing and pondering.The concept behind the film is the inner workings of the police force, both old timers such as Detective Carl Summer (a brilliant performance by Tom Wilkinson), hard working detectives like Malcolm Toohey (Joel Edgerton) who happen to make mistakes after having celebrated with booze a recent traumatic arrest, and a newcomer to the force Jim Melic (Jai Courtney is a very sensitive portrayal). Though the focus is on an accidental hit and run between Toohey and a bicycle riding youngster following a checkpoint where Toohey (who has been drinking is stopped by local police but not held because he is a fellow cop) calls for help but decides to cover-up his part in the encounter, the other two cops are at equal crossroads: Summer tells Toohey to fabricate a story to prevent his being arrested for hit and run, a fact that Summer's new ride along partner Melic cannot justify and seeks the mother of the injured child (Sarah Roberts) to console her. As the tension mounts and the youngster's situation deteriorates and so do the lives of these three detectives. Despite Toohey's wife (Melissa George) encouraging him not to tell the truth as well as Summer's insistence that for the safety of the force and the three cops Toohey maintain his fabricated story, Toohey is ridden with guilt and begins to change his mind about the incident and his involvement. Summer is intolerant of Toohey's weakness and in a struggle Melic (who has made an indecent advance to the child's mother despite his extending support for her) brutally assaults Summer resulting in brain damage. All three cops must walk that thin line between truth and fiction and the effect that truth will have on their careers. At times the Australian accents are tough to understand but that is a very minor point. This is a beautifully scripted, conceived, photographed and acted film that should be high on everyone's list of top films of the year.

Felony is not an easy movie to discuss and talk about. It prompts us not only to consider such confusing dilemma, but also to think about the wide-range human behaviors and how they differ from one to another. Questions are raised by this phenomenal picture; Can we make the right decisions in critical situations? Do we even know what is the right thing to do in such conditions? Could the discreet steps lead us to even a harsher life than a lie followed by nothing more that an agonizing guilt? Besides, this movie brings us the truth about how judgmental people are! They strive to expose the truth when it has nothing to do with them, and try to cover it up when they're involved or experiencing similar incidents.I got a bit irritated by the very fact of our world shown in Felony; our world is becoming, day by day, a more brutal and frightening place to live in. Criminals and culprits are freely wandering outside, while innocent people (or those who made bad things unintentionally) are being charged and thrown to jail, not to mention cold-blooded murders and misdeeds (Mal felt guilty at least, although he didn't do anything bad, while those savage pedophiles were far from remorse).The acting is a first-class. Tom Wilkinson is an accomplished master (I think his part from the script was the best among the others), and Joel Edgerton should be proud of himself for his gripping performance and astounding writing. The screenplay written by him is obviously due to his open mind and prosperous skills. Melissa George was utterly outstanding depicting Julie, Mal's wife, that did what a smart woman would do to keep her family up together. However, I expected watching more on-screen of hers, but she is never short of brilliant, skillful actress. She simply shone with her minor role.In Felony, The right is wrong and the wrong is right, and maybe not. It's a great picture showing a humane issues and a puzzling dilemma that if you consider carefully, you would most definitely drive safely and cautiously!