End of Watch is a documentary-style crime thriller about a tight group of LAPD officers fighting against gang violence. Mexican drug cartels have moved into the neighborhood and violent crime is on the rise. The two main officers, Taylor and Zavala, are documenting their experience in the LAPD for unexplained reasons. Also filming everything are the drug cartels, the street gangs, ICE, and a never-seen camera crew that always gets just the right angle for action scenes.
If the conceit of your film is that the people involved in the crime--investigating and committing it--are filming everything, you can't have random camera angles show up that no one onscreen could actually get. You also can't pretend that everyone magically has professional Canon digital camcorders that shoot the same high quality footage as tiny hidden dashboard and trunk cameras in the police cars.
Personally, I got thrown out of the story every single time these camera inconsistencies appeared. This isn't even getting into how quickly Zavala and Taylor would have been written up by their sergeant for filming themselves while working without the permission of the LAPD. The entire conceit is a glaring plot hole that detracts from a very strong narrative.
You can't knock the acting in the film. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena have great chemistry as partners Taylor and Zavala. They also work really well with their girlfriend and wife, Anna Kendrick and Gabby Martinez. You care about what happens to Taylor and Zavala because they're so believable. They just want to live their lives like everyone else with the exception of working in a dangerous field. The ensemble cast--including America Ferrera, Frank Grillo, and David Harbour--add to the realism of End of Watch with strong, grounded performances.
The screenplay is excellent. Writer/director David Ayer takes a long time establishing all the different characters and locations you need to know for when the story kicks into high gear. After a shocking discovery in an apartment inhabited by a drug addict and her dealer/boyfriend, everything in the small LA area begins to fold in on itself.
A house you saw in one scene lights up in flames with no firefighters around to start the rescue operation in another. A loud party with a heated cop/gang argument reveals all the major criminals operating in the area. A chase scene shown at the beginning of the film through narrow alleys becomes the main location for fights and crimes throughout the rest of the running time. The suspense builds by folding a seemingly vast world of crime in on itself until everyone you met is trapped in a life or death race against the clock.
End of Watch could have been a masterpiece of shocking realism and suspense. Instead, a conceit that isn't consistently adhered to with self-documentation pulls you out of the action again and again. It's a huge blemish on an otherwise very well-conceived film.
Rating: 6/10
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