15 Minutes

Nothing's more satisfying than beating up your little brother, especially if he's trying to be like you. In that vein, Hollywood occasionally takes time out from its busy schedule of selling us sex, violence and moral depravity to chastise television for selling us sex, violence and moral depravity. The latest auteur to attempt this maneuver is John Herzfeld, writer/director of the new film "15 Minutes."

The increasingly symbiotic relationship of cops, criminals and the media has been explored before, but a film with something new to say on the subject would be welcome. However, Herzfeld brings nothing fresh to the argument beyond a complete lack of subtlety, undermines his argument against exploiting sex and violence by exploiting them himself, and can't even make his exploitative sex and violence entertaining. Thus, despite some interesting performances and occasional moments of interest, "15 Minutes" ultimately fails at everything it tries, and little brother escapes unscathed.

Herzfeld's scenario begins with a tabloid news producer named Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer) who will stop at nothing to get ratings, even if it means doing nothing to stop criminals. Fortunately for us, we like to watch the cops get their man, particularly if the cop is mediagenic NYPD detective Eddie Fleming (Robert DeNiro). Fleming and Hawkins work hand in hand to generate arrests and ratings, often literally, as in a hilarious early slapstick scene where Hawkins ends up asking Fleming if he can arrest the perpetrator again. Unfortunately, the slapstick is never followed up by more slapstick. Instead, it's followed by Jordy Warsaw (Ed Burns), an arson investigator who meets Fleming at a crime scene and becomes drawn to his media mastery.

Meanwhile, a Czech named Emil Slovak (newcomer Karel Roden) and a Russian named Oleg Razgul (Ultimate Fight Champion Oleg Taktarov) have come to America to settle a debt. Unfortunately, things don't quite go their way, and they end up almost accidentally killing two people. Then, in the time-honored tradition, they have to kill again to cover up the first crime. Strangely, however, Razgul has been filming the entire sequence of murders. Even more strangely, Slovak ends up encouraging the filming. Do these Eastern European fiends have some sort of plan to exploit the exploitative American media? Will Fleming and Warsaw get caught up in the plan? Will there be grievous consequences for everyone? All this and more at 11.

The first half of "15 Minutes," in which we learn all this, is quite engrossing, as Herzfeld refuses to flat-out demonize anyone (besides Hawkins) and presents charcters rather than stereotypes. However, the first half prepares us for an intelligent, riveting second half that Herzfeld proves unable to deliver.

Herzfeld's first poor decision in the second half is to deny the audience the opportunity to judge the unfolding events for itself. Instead, Herzfeld has Slovak and Hawkins become the mouthpieces for numerous objectionable ideas about media and jurisprudence. These ideas—American justice is overly therapeutic, American media is obsessed with sex and violence, American media hampers law enforcement—are not particularly original and do not gain from being baldly stated. The movie itself suffers even more with the identification of Slovak and Hawkins as the villains. Moral complexity collapses into good-versus-evil banality, and "15 Minutes" becomes a straight-up action film with occasional inane idea-pushing.

The most serious consequence of identifying Slovak and Hawkins as villains, however, is that it takes the audience out of the equation. After all, American media does not exist in a vacuum. We're the ones who watch tabloid news programs and sympathize endlessly with charismatic whiners and give "COPS" a reason to exist. Whatever happens in the media is ultimately our fault, and Herzfeld's refusal to acknowledge this kills his argument.

Furthermore, astute viewers will notice that Herzfeld's film is just as exploitative as the shows it attacks, featuring such standard audience-grabbers as a pointless car chase, repeated brutal violence, demonization of people from other countries, and of course the classic "let's call the escort service" gambit, which provides Herzfeld with a dubious excuse for some full-frontal nudity. If all this were self-mocking, it would be interesting, but no such luck. In fact, as the film progresses, the action-movie cliches take over, ending with numerous scenes ripped off from "Dirty Harry," in which the media substitutes for the liberal jurisprudence attacked in the earlier film. These excesses make Herzfeld look hypocritical, which is not the best way to look when one makes a moral argument.

Even if you attempt to enjoy "15 Minutes" as an action film with some irrelevant concepts floating around, you'll fail. Herzfeld does have car chases, true, but they're not especially visceral; his brutal violence fails to impress with "Hannibal" playing at the next screen over; his escort service girl is ultimately nothing special. And the rip-offs from "Dirty Harry" are truly disheartening, because whatever else you want to say about him, Ed Burns is no Clint Eastwood.

So "15 Minutes" fails at what it sets out to do. It's too bad, because there are some interesting performances here. DeNiro, of course, is unfailingly interesting, and he does a good job with Fleming for as long as he can. Roden makes Slovak just about as interesting a character as anyone could with Herzfeld's script, and Burns is engaging and commanding until the end. These actors could have made a wonderful film, but due to Herzfeld's carelessness, "15 Minutes" is as mindless and irresponsible as anything it attacks.

I'm not sure why the closing note about the good performances; it delays the inevitable. I was trying to be fair, but in criticism, sometimes fairness obscures truth. I know that now.

Dramas Home

Movie Reviews Home

Spam-O-Matic Home