At a time when every third-rate pundit is ranting about media violence, it's hard to find anyone with something new to say on the subject. John Herzfeld, the writer and director of "15 Minutes," certainly isn't going to fill that void.
The plot of the film actually sounds interesting on the surface. A pair of Eastern European crooks come to New York to confront an old associate, and end up brutally murdering the man and his wife, then committing more mayhem to cover their tracks. The leader of the two, Emil (Karel Roden), is a charismatic sociopath with a fierce temper, and he's fascinated by the parade of unrepentant losers he sees on daytime talk shows. His partner, Oleg (Oleg Taktarov), is a wannabe filmmaker who uses his newly-stolen video camera to record his friend's every horrific act. Emil soon figures out how to use both public fascination with crime and the loopholes of the American judicial system to their advantage.
Robert De Niro, right, plays a homicide detective who teams with an arson investigator (Ed Burns) to solve a media-motivated crime spree in "15 Minutes."
The pair's increasingly bold exploits get the attention of celebrated cop Eddie Flemming (Robert De Niro) and arson investigator Jordy Warsaw (Ed Burns), who reluctantly work together on the case. Eddie has a symbiotic relationship with slimy news anchor Robert Hawkins (Kelsey Grammer), who uses Eddie's high-profile busts to help his ratings, but Jordy loathes the whole PR game and continually ignores the need to "look good." When Emil and Oleg finally go after their law-enforcement nemeses, the consequences are disastrous for everyone involved.
Herzfeld wants to make absolutely certain every viewer gets the message of "15 Minutes," so he hammers at it relentlessly throughout the film. He doesn't seem to trust his audience to get the point, or himself to convey it with any subtlety, so he resorts to the time-honored technique of being incredibly loud and simplistic. He even has his characters express such wildly original sentiments as "if it bleeds, it leads" and "nobody (in America) is responsible for what they do," just in case there's somebody out there who hasn't heard these nuggets of wisdom before. Even the title is based on an over-repeated quote from almost 35 years ago.
Herzfeld's contempt for his audience is matched only by the staggering idiocy of his characters. It's no wonder Emil and Oleg get as far as they do the people chasing them are even more clueless than they are. Jordy, in particular, commits a string of boneheaded stunts, including leaving a man handcuffed to a tree for several hours and taking a sexy crime witness back to his place to "get cleaned up." If this is supposed to be our sympathetic hero, it's no wonder Americans are so turned on by bad guys.
Rating: **
(R)
There is at least some style and energy to Herzfeld's direction, which makes a few scenes exciting enough for your average crime thriller. He also managed to get actors who could give their characters at least one dimension, which is one more than they started out with. De Niro can play roles like this in his sleep, but he's enough of a pro to give Eddie a few layers of humanity, and even occasional warmth. Burns has a harder time making Jordy interesting, but he holds his own with De Niro, which is no small feat. Best of all, however, is Roden, an accomplished stage actor in his native Czech Republic. His Emil is both charismatic and truly frightening, and this performance should guarantee him further work in Hollywood.
In fact, as is so often the case, the movie only gets interesting when its scariest, most depraved character is on screen. This is the person we want to watch, whose actions get our attention and make us care about what happens next, something the heroes just aren't compelling enough to inspire. One can't help but wonder if Herzfeld is aware of the irony in this.
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