The Sweeney decides to take the Miami Vice route, in trying to make a much more serious take on it's source material. However, where The Sweeney succeeds is that it takes us on a journey with quite likeable characters and some tense action scenes along the way.
The Sweeney follows Jack Reagan (Ray Winstone), a bent cop who doesn't always play by the rules. His methods are argued to be old-fashioned, so he and his team are being investigated by Ivan Lewis (Steven Mackintosh), an Internal Affairs officer who has come to scrutinise them. However, as in all good film plot twists, it's not just Reagan's policing methods that Lewis should be worried about, because Reagan is also sleeping with Lewis' wife and fellow Policewoman, Nancy (Hayley Atwell). After ignoring orders, a shootout in a London bank goes horribly wrong and Reagan is sent to the prison where he has sent many of his past criminals. But, his young protege, George Carter (Ben Drew aka. Plan B) soon manages to release him to bring down an old adversary, Allen (Paul Anderson) and ensure that their Sweeney department lives on for good.
Now, where The Sweeney makes it's first major positive impression is just how tense and serious it takes it's subject matter. In a jewellery shop raid, a supposed innocent member of the public is mercilessly gunned down by the thieves. Halfway through the film, there is an extremely tense car park scene where Reagan and Nancy are chasing after the bank robbers in silence only for one of them to pop up in the back seat of a car. Then there's the finale with a brilliantly British car chase scene through a caravan holiday park. While the direction by Nick Love was pretty standard through more of the quieter scenes, he really shines in directing a tense action scene, with guns blazing and car tyres screeching.
But, the action on screen would be nowhere near as tense if it didn't have likeable characters behind it. While The Sweeney does resort to the cheeky Cockney stereotype with excessive swearing, Ray Winstone as the likeable rogue and Ben Drew as the bad kid turned good do really well with the central roles that they are given. They balance their character flaws well against their love for the Police force and wanting to dish out justice. For example, Reagan is shown near the beginning of the film selling on some gold from a raid they have just done (which is never really taken any further), but his love for his work and Nancy really help flesh out his character to a more balanced individual - we can accept his flaws in resorting to petty theft from a crime scene, because his girlfriend won't leave her unloving husband and his work place is under constant scrutiny.
Despite all the positives, The Sweeney does have some flaws and they are mainly due to the writing. A lot of the film seems rather underdeveloped, especially involving character developments and relationships. Like I said previously, Reagan is shown at the beginning to steal from crime scenes to earn extra cash, but he never really makes the full character arc of making the decision to become straight by the end of the film and not resort to stealing anymore (while we don't see him steal anything else, he isn't challenged by anyone about it.)
Another major underdevelopment in the script of The Sweeney was the main villain, Allen. His motives weren't clear, his previous involvement with Reagan and Carter wasn't fully explained and he just wasn't threatening enough as a villain. While you could easily blame Paul Anderson for the performance, I can't help but feel that the flaws truly lies with the scriptwriting, because Anderson is never really given enough to work with. His character doesn't do anything to make him a nasty person (despite a shoot-out near the end of the film) or to show his motives behind the crime. All it needed was a flashback (kinda cheesy though) or an explanation of some kind to show how Allen was previously involved with Reagan and Carter to make the whole film feel more personal and tense, because as it stands, it felt like the audience was watching just another episode of The Sweeney where they need to solve a crime rather than something that was personal to them.
Finally, it's the key relationship between Reagan and Nancy that acts as the key crux to the film and the reason why Reagan wants to take down Allen and his crime gang. I could have dealt with the slightly awkward sight of seeing the beautiful Hayley Atwell bed down with the ageing Ray Winstone if their characters were given a decent reason for falling for each other. Sure, Reagan is just amazed that this beauty wants to sleep with him, but Nancy is never really given a proper reason as to why she fell for Reagan. Sure, her husband is unloving towards her, but is that a reason to fall for her older, overweight, crooked Police partner? All it needed was some further development to show what Reagan had done for Nancy (maybe help her move out from her husbands house or show him helping her after a particularly nasty argument with her husband) and it would have been a bit easier to understand.
So, if you like your tense British crime flicks, then The Sweeney certainly delivers on all those fronts, it's just a shame that the film felt a little bit half developed and characters being under utilised.
***½ / *****
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