‘Tough Cop’ Gets Tangled in Formula

“One Tough Cop” is one dull movie. Yet again we’re presented with a fearless NYPD policeman (Stephen Baldwin) who may bend the rules but gets the job done time after time only to be reprimanded by the brass who then takes credit for his heroics. At the end of this predictable picture we’re told that except for the former policeman Baldwin plays, Bo Dietl, everyone else is fictional, but this does not come exactly as a surprise.

The problem is that writer Jeremy Iacone, in adapting Dietl’s book, keeps on piling on the complications. Dietl has a partner, Duke (Chris Penn), every bit as brave and canny as he is, but plagued with an escalating gambling problem. That Bo’s lifelong best friend (Michael McGlone) has grown up to be a leading Mafioso looks to be helpful to Duke’s plight, but this fast friendship between cop and crook has fallen under the scrutiny of the FBI, represented by a pair of the nastiest, toughest agents (Amy Irving, Victor Slezak) imaginable.

At just this moment--wouldn’t you know?--Bo and Duke are faced with tracking down whoever raped, beat and mutilated a nun in a Harlem convent. Despite official obstacles in investigating this terrible case--based on an actual incident--Bo has time to begin an affair with his Mafioso pal’s gorgeous mistress (Gina Gershon).

Now all this and more may have happened to Dietl, but nothing in “One Tough Cop” is convincing because it unfolds in so mechanical and impersonal a manner under Bruno Barreto’s by-the-numbers direction. Time after time the well-cast Baldwin and Penn work up a scene impressively, and the film looks to catch fire only to be dampened by rigid adherence to formula filmmaking. The one director who might have made this movie work is Sidney Lumet, who has brought a sense of irony and conflicting loyalties to similar material.

A handsomely designed and photographed film, “One Tough Cop” has the look of a Lumet picture--but without the feeling.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong language and violence. Times guidelines: These elements are very strong.

‘One Tough Cop’

Stephen Baldwin: Bo Dietl

Chris Penn: Duke Finnerty

Gina Gershon: Joey O’Hara

Michael McGlone: Richie La Cassa

A Stratosphere Entertainment release of a Patriot Films presentation. Director Bruno Barreto. Producers Michael and Martin Bregman. Executive producers Michael Mendelsohn, Bo Dietl. Screenplay by Jeremy Iacone, from Bo Dietl’s book. Cinematographer Ron Fortunato. Editor Ray Hubley. Costumes Martha Mann. Music Bruce Broughton. Production designer Perri Gorrara. Set decorator Megan Less. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.