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EXILED:
A LAW & ORDER MOVIE
REVIEWED
BY CHARITY BISHOP
Our
rating: 3 out of 5 Because
of: language, violence, sensuality
Rated:
Chris Noth was
not pleased with how his character Mike Logan was written out of the Law
& Order franchise, and proposed a wrap-up episode with series
creator Dick Wolf. Exiled is less a Law & Order
continuation as it is an exploration of the character. It brings closure
to the fans. Banished
to Staten Island after slugging a corrupt politician on the steps of the
courthouse after the man walked on an acquittal, Detective Mike Logan (Noth) is stuck on low-profile domestic disturbance cases. While on the
ferry one morning he observes a floater and reports it as a case on their
side of the river. The body, a young woman, is loaded with drugs and newly
pregnant. Her attacker seemed bent on destroying the baby as much as the
mother. Logan's current commanding officer wants him to dump the case in
Manhattan, where all the leads are pointing, but he and his new partner Detective Frankie Silvera
(Dana Eskelson) are determined to stick with it. Logan believes it may
land him back on the fast track to handling homicides, and Frankie is just
relieved to finally have a partner that doesn't object to her being a
woman. The
floater's identity is that of a prostitute and stripper in the slew of
sleazy bars on the outskirts of his old haunts, and their shakedown of a
local strip bar produces a warning from Captain Cragen (Dann Florek) to
back off -- one of their suspects is believed to have hired a dirty cop in
the 27, Logan's old precinct. While attempting to bring about justice for
the sister of the deceased, Logan enlists the help of Lennie Briscoe
(Jerry Orbach) in solving the case, but it soon becomes apparent that
Manhattan doesn't want his assistance. Determined not to give up, he locks
horns with District Attorney Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) in an attempt to
form a task-force between the two jurisdictions, in an action that will
make or break what's left of his career in law enforcement.
The
response to this film among the fans is widely varied. Some of them
absolutely love it, because it focuses around Mike Logan, one of the more
popular of Wolf's characters, and others felt it was sub-par
to the rest of the series. There's a nice repertoire between Logan and
Briscoe, and guest appearances by Ray Curtis (Benjamin Bratt), and Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
(S. Epatha Merkerson). Unlike the series, there are no courtroom scenes
and the only appearance by lawyers is a nice little bit of antagonism
shared between McCoy and Logan on the courtroom steps. ("Do you have
to work at annoying people, Detective, or does it come naturally?"
"It's a gift.") It does focus more on the underhanded side of
Manhattan -- the strip clubs, seedy hotels, and prostitutes that prowl the
streets at night, but at its heart its about one man's attempts to redeem
himself from a tragic mistake. Fans of the show will take a guess at what
the content concerns are like, but they still bear mentioning. Logan
and his partner are forced to enter a strip bar in order to question
suspects. Other scantily clad females pole dance and wriggled around in
the background; one comes on to Logan, and starts to dance for his partner
before they tell her to sit down and talk to them. The owner of the club
refers to his girls as "pigs," because they're just "meat
to be sold." He is later busted in the office, and a girl pops up
from under the desk, indicating oral contact. There is blood at crime scenes -- a mattress soaked in it, a body
with his head bashed in, autopsy photos. Hotheaded policemen get into fist
fights. Detectives make
suggestive jokes about dead hookers. Logan becomes involved with the
sister of the deceased, but it's not implied they do anything more than
kiss. Language is minimal.
It's
a film that you won't enjoy unless you have come to know Mike Logan. The
first time I saw it, I wasn't too fond of it (or him), but once I had played catch
up on Mike's five years with the franchise, I found my attitude completely
different. While it's true that the cameos of series regulars seemed
thrown in there just to legitimize the story, the film's
original premise becomes more interesting with time. It starts out with
the body of a hooker and accumulates in an emotional showdown between
cops in the 27th precinct. This is
Logan's true farewell.
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