Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington star in TRAINING DAY
© 2001 Warner Bros.

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TRAINING DAY

"I will do anything you want me to do," ambitious yet idealistic LAPD officer Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) promises his superior, Det. Sgt. Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington), in TRAINING DAY. Eager to climb the ranks to detective, Hoyt sees a possible slot on Alonzo's elite undercover narcotics squad as the route upward. Alonzo, on the other hand, gives his young tag along only one day to make a good impression as the two drive around the streets of Los Angeles together. Ultimately, however, it's the younger man who finds himself stymied by the evaluation. Is Alonzo genuinely dirty or is Hoyt simply being put through some ultra-rigorous, devious paces to see if he really has what it takes?

Writer David Ayer and director Antoine Fuqua prove themselves fairly adroit at keeping the question plausibly alive for a fairly long while, plunging Hoyt intriguingly into areas of moral grayness. The first half of the film shows shades of THE FRENCH CONNECTION, with a less admiring view of a cop who uses hair-raising tactics to get the job done. Hoyt worships Alonzo's legend his epic record of successful arrests but finds himself looking on the man askance when he physically menaces a wheelchair-bound suspect.

Much of what works for TRAINING DAY is its exploration of the epic misconduct of the real life LAPD. The film might be more interesting if it stuck with this track, but its commercial instincts eventually steer it away from moral ambiguity into more conventional thriller territory. There's also an enormous, unlikely coincidence that strains credibility in the last act, which is all the more unfortunate because it could have easily been avoided.

However, the filmmakers come up with some good conundrums for Hoyt. Early on, Alonzo insists that the trainee take a hit on a pipe supposedly filled with marijuana, insisting that any good narc must sample product when a dealer offers it to him. There's logic in the argument if you don't want to get "made" as a cop, you can't act like one and even viewers who surmise the broad strokes of where all this is leading won't likely see the specific plot twists.

Much of the attraction here is the presence of Washington in a role that sees him summoning all of his considerable charisma and authority to play against type he makes Alonzo the mentor from Hell, complete with the Devil's own lures. He has the arrogance, brass and charm to persuade us and Hoyt that he means what he says at every moment, and he manages to keep us guessing as to his next move nearly all the way through.

Hawke has a less showy role, but he handles Hoyt's initial enthusiasm and growing confusion with realistic, restrained emotion. Scott Glenn makes a strong impression in just a few scenes as an Echo Park dealer with long-standing ties to Alonzo, and Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Macy Gray all show up to good effect in supporting roles.

TRAINING DAY has one of those finales in which the characters suddenly display improbable physical resilience and as its plot complications increase, it drifts away from its initial thorny moral quandary to become much simpler. Nevertheless, it is well constructed and holds viewer attention. It also inadvertently has the benefit of neither contradicting nor reflecting any aspect of the events of Sept. 11 most of its story could be playing out even now on the mean streets of L.A.