Over the last 20 years, one of the most popular subjects for television has been the cop drama. Television, though, in its light family friendly form, fails to capture the grit and harshness of the profession’s emotional side, instead focusing on the story development of the investigations themselves. It stands to reason that movies, with their ability to push the envelope of violence and language that public television can’t, can show the darker side of the police divisions. This is not always the case, as many films are merely glorified stories that would normally be suitable for television, yet have been pumped up with language, violence, and sometimes a major star to garner being released in a theater.

Joe Carnahan’s “Narc” could have fallen into this category with its interesting investigation storyline which features interesting twists and turns, and enough language and violence to garner it’s R-rating, but instead breaks the stereotypical focus of the cop drama by instead focusing on the emotional pressures forced upon undercover narcotic agents. What will undoubtedly thrust the film into the national spotlight are the outstanding performances of its two lead actors Jason Patric and Ray Liotta.

The film begins with a flashback of an undercover bust by agent Nick Tellis (Patric) going horribly, horribly wrong. The scene is played over and over in his mind and he is clearly burdened by what occurred. Placed on suspension, Tellis deals with the emotional pressures placed on him and his young family stemming from countless police inquiries into the incident while he is on an indefinite suspension from the force. When another undercover agent is killed while on assignment and the case not solved in over 2 months, a desperate police Captain (Chi McBride) relies on Tellis’ street knowledge and practically begs Tellis to help look into the incident, eventually bargaining with him to get him assigned to the case. Joining the murdered agent’s former partner Henry Oak (Liotta) who has led the investigation so far, Tellis dives into the paperwork and starts working the street with Oak trying to uncover clues that may help crack the case. The deeper he gets into the case, Tellis’ prior incident haunts his psyche, and the closer he gets to the truth may uncover answers to questions he doesn’t want answered.

Portraying Tellis, Jason Patric gives what may be the performance of his career. This is helped indelibly by Carnahan’s direction, which allows for drawn out scenes and slow probing into the character’s emotions. Patric wrestling with his memories as he stands in the bleak, stark world of which he works are an amazing look at the lives of undercover agents and the emotions they are dealing with. As Patric rocks back and forth holding his 18-month old baby boy while he and his wife argue over him being back on the street, he communicates through his body language the ripping of the love of his family with the love of his work, his desire to do good. We are not only seeing the actor in scenes, we are drawn in as a third person to Patric’s emotional status.

As Ray Liotta plays Oak, a cop on the edge with questionable ethics, he is almost unrecognizable. It’s been reported that Liotta packed on 40 pounds for the role, and the heavyset frame help to portray the larger than life man. Seemingly in control of everything in his environment, Liotta’s eyes tell us he is clearly bothered by the politics being played behind the scenes of the investigation of his former partner. This is certainly his best role since “Goodfellas” made him a household name.

This is definitely not a mainstream film, however. It is very slow and methodical, almost dragging in many places throughout the film. Carnahan’s directorial method, though, captures the perfect emotions for the scenes, and his contrasting of bleak gray colors for the city environment, bright colors for happy memories, and brown toned repressive memories astutely captures the feel for each segment. There is a certain brutality in the violence depicted in the film, although it is nothing that hasn’t been seen before. The use of split screens, although it occurs only during one sequence and it would have been interesting to see used more, seemed to be a small homage to the classic cop films of the 1970’s and is executed nicely.

Without the performances of Patric and Liotta, this film would have certainly been passed over and been just another limited release destined to languish at the box office. While the story is very good in it’s own right, the performances push it to the next level and give the film the attention it deserves. Methodical, introspective, and very gritty, “Narc” is not for everyone, but should give those looking for a character driven story an enjoyable time.