EvenHand (2002)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Joseph Pierson

Writer:

Mike Jones (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

You can't be everybody's friend.

Plot Keywords:

Cop Romance | Police Arrest | Good Cop Bad Cop

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Bill Sage	...	Officer Ted Morning
Bill Dawes	...	Officer Rob Francis
Lawrence Stringer	...	Mather
Lee Stringer	...	David Mather
Io Tillett Wright	...	Toby
Mirelly Taylor	...	Jessica (as Ruth Osuna)
Irene Pena	...	Carla
Héctor García	...	Victor
Kelley West	...	Carol (as Kelley Saunders)
Eduardo Cavazos Garza	...	Sgt. Leonard
Greg Bransom	...	Donald
Earley B. Teal	...	Old Man With Brick
Bena Kratochvil	...	Lisa Mather
Alsada Richardson	...	Lisa's Mom
William Luke	...	Ronald

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some violence and drug content.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

German | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Company:

Cypress Films (I)

Quotes:

Officer Rob Francis: [narration - as funeral passes] Most people hate cops. It's a fact, but it's not true. When things go bad, we're the ones you call. We show up, and we arrest people. Because as a friend once said, we're cops, that's what we do. But it's also our job to make things better. Chase away the shadows. I guess sometimes the shadows we chase, are our own.

Soundtrack:

Get Along

A breath of fresh air for American indie film making

It's not often we see a cop movie that hits us as being so realistic that we can truly believe in the characters as real people. EvenHand does exactly this. The film follows two very cops in smalltown Texas. Both of them are doing the job to the best of their ability and both have very different approaches – one has a no-nonsense approach and the other tries to be understanding and the people's friend. After seeing the more obvious failings of the first approach we are introduced to the downside of the more people-centred approach and realize, as do the cops in the story, that the answer maybe lies somewhere in between. It's a film not so much about the stories of petty crime they attempt to address but a careful and telling character study and comment on the difficulty of police work and finding the best way of doing the job, and in doing so becomes a moving emotional drama. In a climate where American movies usually spell style over substance, this is a welcome voice in independent filmmaking.