As detective Terrence McDonagh surveys the bloody scene before him, three dead gangsters, a terror shoots through his drug addled mind: "Shoot him again" he shouts. "Why?" says one of his thug co-horts. "Because, his soul's still dancing." The camera pans the scene passing over the dead body of some fat Italian gangster and pausing on what only McDonagh can see, that same gangster's lithe, balletic soul spinning wildly in a break-dance before one final gunshot drops the soul to the floor.
This scene is indicative of what you will get in Werner Herzog blazingly unconventional re-imagining of Abel Ferrara's darkly comic drama “Bad Lieutenant.” If this scene intrigues you wait till you see what else Herzog has up his sleeve. “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” is a head trip, dark, violent comedy that features yet another comeback performance by Nicolas Cage.
Terence McDonagh wasn't a great cop before he got hooked on drugs. As we meet him, Terence and his partner Stevie (Val Kilmer) are two of the last guys out of the precinct as the waters of Katrina are rising. Finding one last prisoner trapped in a cell, Terence and Stevie begin making wagers on how long it will take for the prisoner to drown. Eventually, Terence decides to rescue the guy but not without consequence.
The rescue injured Terence's back leaving him slumped on one side of his body and in constant pain. Terence deals with the pain through a steady stream of hardcore drugs. Cocaine keeps him going but also fuels his dark side. Post accident, Terence patrols the dark corners of a New Orleans that, post-Katrina, is a sort of Sodom before the rapture place. In a scene of ugly humor turning to near horror, Terence rousts a couple coming out of a nightclub and, well, I will leave you to discover what happens next.
In his private life Terence is in love with a high class prostitute named Frankie (Eva Mendes). She is also hooked on cocaine and the two fuel each other’s addiction by turning drugs into the fuel of their sex life.
The plot of “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” kicks in with a murder of a drug dealing family from Africa in one of the most violent neighborhoods in New Orleans. The cops quickly figure out that the biggest deal in town is the most likely killer but catching him will take Terence to even stranger and more drugged out places.
Director Werner Herzog is not so much concerned with the twists and turns of a murder plot as he is with giving Nicolas Cage a stage on which to exhibit the talent we all knew was there from his Oscar winning turn in “Leaving Las Vegas.” Detective McDonagh is the other side of the coin from Ben in “Leaving Las Vegas,” if the other side of the coin were dirtier and with an even more pronounced death wish.
Yes, the usual Cage histrionics are on display. His hyper-kinetic babbling, his wild haired, wild eyed look, but, this time, it works because the character and the context given by William Finkelstein's excellent script and Werner Herzog's director are the perfect fuel for Cage's antics.
Wildly violent, darkly humorous and directed with freewheeling relish and great skill, “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” pays tribute to the disturbing original film while giving the material his own black comic spin. The film also returns Nicolas Cage to Oscar winning form and that is just part of what makes “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” brilliant.
BYLINE:
Sean Patrick Kernan is a film critic. Check him out at: http://www.myspace.com/number1ramjamfan.
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