Black and Blue

The low box office expectations for this good cop-bad cop action drama reflect the conundrum at the center of the plot (and the title): In many American cities like New Orleans, where the film is set, African-Americans identify as black (part of the community of color) or “blue” (a police officer), but not both.

So when rookie officer Alicia West (Naomie Harris) witnesses a murder by some corrupt detectives, recording the incident on her bodycam, she’s stranded between her two worlds. As she’s hunted down by a gaggle of corrupt cops, the black community doesn’t want to help because they distrust police, and she doesn’t know whether she can rely on any of her law-enforcement colleagues.

Which circles back to the question: Who’s the target audience for this movie? (Other than that boilerplate answer, “Anyone who likes crime action dramas,” which is, forgive me, something of a cop out.) Sure, it’s got a black protagonist who’s honorable and sympathetic, but she’s a police officer and not a very good one at that. And other than the one ally she picks up — a convenience store manager named Mouse (Tyrese Gibson, The Fate of the Furious) — most of the other African-American characters are part of a drug gang or undifferentiated poor people. So… not much of an advancement for the portrayal of African-American characters onscreen. (There’s one black female police captain who’s not corrupt, but she’s barely seen.)

As a crime action drama, Black and Blue isn’t terrible. It moves the story briskly along, doesn’t always take the easy plot turn, and figures out moderately creative answers to the various traps into which it drops Alicia and Darius. Prolific director Deon (The Intruder, Traffik) specialized in high-tension movies, and he powers through a lot of eye-rolling moments by maintaining suspense even in the face of audience disbelief.

Taylor has said he admires Alicia’s “moral conviction” and argues that no other movie exists with a black female police officer in the lead role. Both are good points, but let’s hope the next movie focused on an African-American woman cop also allows her to show off how well she can do her job, not just avoid the bad guys.

Grade: C-minus. Rated R. Showing at AMC River Hills, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Screen Gems)