MCCANICK (2013)

McCanick (2013)
Directed by: Josh C. Waller
Written by: Daniel Noah
Starring: Ciarán Hinds, Cory Monteith, David Morse, Mike Vogel

McCanick (2013)
Directed by Josh C. Waller

Detective Eugene McCanick is a man on a mission after a young man named Simon Weeks, who he put away seven years previously, is back in town. Despite a warning from his captain, McCanick persues Weeks with deadly consequences.

MCCANICK is an American cop thriller that has the viewer engaged right from the start, thanks to a strong lead in David Morse, who you may recall from The Green Mile amonst other movies. His bee-in-the-bonnet over young Weeks, played by the late Glee star Corey Monteith in his last ever role, is slowly revealed throughout the course of the film. All the viewer is left to feed on throughout is that McCanick wants to get his hands on Weeks badly and that Weeks’ earlier imprisonment may not be cut and dry, with suggestions of foul play within the police force. The cat and mouse game is exciting to watch with McCanick not afraid of using brute force to catch his man.

The character of Eugene McCanick is that of a hard, experienced detective, who’s happy to break the rules if it means getting what he wants. Divorced with a son he has rarely seen, he feels a failure in life but his passion for the work he does spurs him on, as well as the chance to mend his broken relationship with his son who too has joined the force but in a different district. At first, McCanick is quite likable in his stubborn way, but after a game-changing scene early on in the film, we begin to wonder about him and his past, in particular his history with Weeks, a seemingly harmless young guy who’s just been brought up on the wrong side of the tracks. McCanick’s captain Jerry Quinn is played by Ciarán Hinds (Rome) and although he’s only in a couple of scenes, he brings the authoritive angle from the police department’s view on what McCanick is up to and despite Quinn’s stance, McCanick goes renegade. Which leaves us with Weeks, a young man who’s story is never really told in the present but we find out all about him through flashbacks which helps to reveal Weeks as both a person as well as the reason why McCanick is hunting him down.

The film is intense at times, particularly in scenes where McCanick is intimidating others in a bid to trace weeks. His persuit of Weeks takes him across the city and the viewer is treated to a variety of location shots including the apartment of some scummy drug pushers.

I had a slight issue when watching the film where some of the characters dialogue sounded a bit mumbly and even when I turned up the volume I still couldn’t decipher what they were saying. Fortunately this only happened in a few scenes, with the rest of the film perfectly audible and the plot easy to follow.

McCanick has mystery, crime and a cat and mouse thrill chase up its sleeve, leading towards the plots ultimate surprising reveal and neatly sewed up conclusion.

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