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End of Watch

Ricardo Sanchez Lange
Ricardo Sanchez Lange

Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pe単a star as two LA police officers, Brian Taylor and Mike Zavala, whose close friendship is tested as they investigate more dangerous criminal cases connected to a Mexican drug cartel. The film follows their partnership both on the job, where they display bravery and recklessness in dangerous situations, and off the job, where they balance their police work with personal lives including families. While the film captures the gritty realities and risks of police work, it also shows the humor and affection between the two main characters that deepens the audience's connection to them throughout the increasingly high-stakes story.

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Thursday 13 December 2012 End of Watch Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pe単a team up in this gritty, yet moving, LA cop thriller By Jenny McCartney David Ayers End of Watch, set in the LA police department, is a grittier, more satisfying affair. Ayer, the writer of Training Day, has an instinct for the edgy atmosphere and difficult choices involved in police work in deprived, gang-ridden areas. Here, he follows two cops, Officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pe単a), to some very dark places indeed. Taylor himself is documenting his work on a shaky hand-held camera, as part of a study project, a conceit leading to a choppy mix of shooting styles which is often an unnecessary distraction. At the heart of the film is the relationship between Taylor and Zavala, an inseparable duo. They are still young and rash enough to be idealistic and reckless about the job and the opportunities it offers for testing their mettle (on one occasion, when they endanger their lives to pull children from a blazing building, Zavalas pregnant wife and Taylors girlfriend are not congratulatory, but angry). Their willingness to risk more than the average cop leads them to stumble upon a bigger evil than they had imagined connected to a Mexican drugs cartel, Hollywoods new byword for organised terror - with commensurate danger for themselves. Solid heroism is a hard substance to digest, and Ayer successfully leavens it with the ordinary funny, enchanting or irritating stuff of life: Zavalas long-standing relationship with his wife (Natalie Martinez); Taylors first discovery of a serious girlfriend (Anna Kendrick); and their endless culturally-charged snappy banter (Zavala is of Mexican origin, Taylor white), which is deprived of all sting by their evident well of affection. Im taking Janet to the Philharmonic, says Taylor. Enjoy your white-people s---! Zavala sings out. Yet the normality and happiness they both strive for at home is contrasted with the grisly dysfunction, and worse, that waits for them behind other front doors in the city: crack- addicted mothers, sadistic boyfriends, drugs and mass-murders. If Taylor and Zavala have a flaw its that they are not easily frightened enough. Gyllenhaal and Pe単a evoke a convincing dynamic forged in boredom, fear and deep loyalty. The characters love each other, and you like them, which is why Ayers violent, foul-mouthed thriller succeeds in moving more than most.

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End of Watch

  • 1. Thursday 13 December 2012 End of Watch Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pe単a team up in this gritty, yet moving, LA cop thriller By Jenny McCartney David Ayers End of Watch, set in the LA police department, is a grittier, more satisfying affair. Ayer, the writer of Training Day, has an instinct for the edgy atmosphere and difficult choices involved in police work in deprived, gang-ridden areas. Here, he follows two cops, Officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Pe単a), to some very dark places indeed. Taylor himself is documenting his work on a shaky hand-held camera, as part of a study project, a conceit leading to a choppy mix of shooting styles which is often an unnecessary distraction. At the heart of the film is the relationship between Taylor and Zavala, an inseparable duo. They are still young and rash enough to be idealistic and reckless about the job and the opportunities it offers for testing their mettle (on one occasion, when they endanger their lives to pull children from a blazing building, Zavalas pregnant wife and Taylors girlfriend are not congratulatory, but angry). Their willingness to risk more than the average cop leads them to stumble upon a bigger evil than they had imagined connected to a Mexican drugs cartel, Hollywoods new byword for organised terror - with commensurate danger for themselves. Solid heroism is a hard substance to digest, and Ayer successfully leavens it with the ordinary funny, enchanting or irritating stuff of life: Zavalas long-standing relationship with his wife (Natalie Martinez); Taylors first discovery of a serious girlfriend (Anna Kendrick); and their endless culturally-charged snappy banter (Zavala is of Mexican origin, Taylor white), which is deprived of all sting by their evident well of affection. Im taking Janet to the Philharmonic, says Taylor. Enjoy your white-people s---! Zavala sings out. Yet the normality and happiness they both strive for at home is contrasted with the grisly dysfunction, and worse, that waits for them behind other front doors in the city: crack- addicted mothers, sadistic boyfriends, drugs and mass-murders. If Taylor and Zavala have a flaw its that they are not easily frightened enough. Gyllenhaal and Pe単a evoke a convincing dynamic forged in boredom, fear and deep loyalty. The characters love each other, and you like them, which is why Ayers violent, foul-mouthed thriller succeeds in moving more than most.