Internal Affairs Movie Review 378

Internal Affairs is a 1990 thriller directed by Mike Figgis and starring Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, William Baldwin and Nancy Travis.

The movie starts with a cop called Dorian Fletcher(Michael Beach) shooting an unarmed man by mistake. He meets fellow cops, Dennis Peck(Gere) and Van Stretch(Baldwin) who are busting some drug dealers. Peck grabs a knife and he puts it into the dead man's hand to cover Fletcher who is not sure that this is the right thing to do. He is uncomfortable with this, but Peck tells him that cops have to help each other out. There is something dirty about Peck and Stretch. Along comes Raymond Avila(Andy Garcia) who is joining Internal Affairs. He is working with a partner called Amy Wallace(Laurie Metcalf). He is put on the case of Stretch who is a loose cannon. He has been using excessive force and is beating his wife.

Avila realises that Stretch's partner Peck is no saint either. He is not liked by a lot of the cops and he is hated by Fletcher who thinks that he is a bad cop. Avila tries to put pressure on Stretch to testify against his pal, but it doesn't work at first, but he cracks and decides to cooperate. Peck discovers this and he arranges a little accident for his pal. He gets him shot and he finishes him off himself. He thinks that he is in the clear, but there is a witness who gets shot after he shoots and kills Fletcher.
He tells Avila that Peck was the killer before he dies too.

Avila is married to Kathleen(Travis) and their marriage is on the rocks. Peck calls around to see her and pretends to be from Internal Affairs too. He asks questions about her husband and when Avila spots them together, he jumps to the wrong conclusion and freaks out, hitting his wife in the process.
He realises that he was wrong when he talks to her and they make up.Peck's web of lies and deceit unravels as Avila gets closer to catching him out. He shoots Wallace and escapes. Avila realises that he is heading for his house and his wife. He arrives home to find him trying to rape Kathleen. He pulls a gun on Peck, but Peck attacks him. Avila shoots him dead.

This was an entertaining thriller with lots of twists and turns. There were good performances from all of the cast. Gere was very good as the sleazy cop and Garcia was good as the hot headed Avila. Very good movie. I will give it a 7/10.