Police, Adjective

This movie could be seen as the exact opposite of Bad Lieutenant, which is kind of amusing. Whereas that film was a sort of exaggerated take on what it's like to be a cop, this was almost painfully realistic, the slow grinding tedium of actual policework. Conceptually, it's sort of interesting, the story of a police officer working a case about a teenage drug user whom he actually doesn't want to bust, but it's so slow that it's really hard to appreciate. The pacing is downright glacial - you have, for instance, a 5 minute scene of the guy waiting to talk to someone and just sitting in the office as the secretary types. There's no background music to distract you from the fact that nothing is going on. The cop follows these kids around, and you're there for every minute of the walk down long, fairly monotonous streets.

I dozed here and there - I just couldn't stay awake for it - but yeah. This is one of those expert level foreign films that I just can't fully appreciate.