It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Set in Sydney, this absorbing Australian psychological drama gets fine performances from its' three leads, Tom Wilkinson, Joel Edgerton (who also wrote the screenplay), and Jai Courtney.Edgerton portrays Detective Mal Toohey, who after a police celebration of a successful task force operation that he led, gets behind the wheel "under the influence". He ends up side-swiping a 9-year-old boy riding his bicycle, who's knocked unconscious to the pavement. Detective Toohey stops and calls emergency services but doesn't reveal it was he who hit the boy.Detectives Summer (Wilkinson) and Malic (Courtney) come upon the scene and begin to investigate. Detective Summer is a hardened veteran, who knows Toohey, and believes that the police need to protect their own no matter what. However, Detective Malic is a young and idealistic officer, who believes in finding out the truth no matter what the consequences.Over the next three days, as the young boy lies in a coma in the hospital, they'll be many surprises and twists and turns to come in the film, which I thought were quite engrossing and kept me engaged.Australian filmmaker Matthew Saville handles the direction here and, as mentioned Edgerton wrote the script.In summary, I wasn't, to be honest, thrilled with the ending per se, but overall I thought this was a pretty decent and engaging police psychological drama.

"Felony," from 2013, is a film written by and starring Joel Edgerton, Jai Courtney, and Tom Wilkinson. These actors play Australian police detectives who are brought into conflict after a tragedy.Edgerton plays Malcolm Toohey. After a few drinks, he is driving home when he hits a boy who is riding a bicycle. The boy is not wearing a helmet and is bleeding. Panicked, Malcolm calls for paramedics. He says initially that he didn't see anything, that he saw something in the street and it turned out to be the boy. Later on he says he saw the tail lights of a car as it turned the corner.This discrepancy is noted by a new detective, Jim Melic (Courtney). Courtney's partner is a veteran, Carl Summer (Wilkinson). Melic doesn't understand the way the incident is handled. The car was not impounded, for one thing, and the discrepancy in Malcolm's statement isn't questioned.Melic becomes obsessed with gathering evidence on the case, particularly after meeting the boy's mother and seems to become interested in her. Summer, on the other hand, wants him to stop investigating. Malcolm? His conscience is killing him.Good movie, if not great, with an excellent performance by Wilkinson, as always. There is something about his presence in any film that elevates it, in my opinion. He is such an excellent actor, and has such a wide range, that he draws a viewer in immediately.Joel Edgerton approached his role in an internalized way, probably not to everyone's taste, but his performance is solid. Jai Courtney comes off in his role as a determined detective who is able to keep his emotions in check until the very end, sort of inwardly seething.All in all, very good, also quite dark. No one leaves this world unscathed.

What is the problem with making a decent film in this country? I started watching this movie and it seemed as though I was in for a decent watch. The camera work - the direction - the acting - even the script - seemed good. Then I realised that there was to be absolutely no depth to the narrative. No plot. It was 90 minutes of grown men wasting my time - wrangling about this? So these filmmakers are going to take up an hour and a half of my life because some guy clipped a paperboy on his way home from a pub? That's the movie? Thats it? I mean I know if you hit someone - it's no joke - but you're going to base an ENTIRE feature length film on this? Couldn't these bloody useless cops be out catching ACTUAL criminals? You have movies about ACTUAL STUFF out there - and this is our Australian level of contribution? This was so utterly lame - so clichéd and predictable. You have the cop who has the crisis of faith and starts going to the hospital to visit the sick kid - you have the old cop who does a favour for a mate - you have the guy who's life is turned upside down - you have the stoic Indian woman hoping against hope in her hospital vigil - you have journalists and helicopters hovering around a kid who's fallen off his bike? Gimme a break will ya? Why can't you people make a film Australians can be proud of? No wonder the moment an Australian artist has a hit - the first thing they do is bail to another country! Absolutely horrible. Horrible...

Great performance by Head Detective Summer....epic monologue:You bring me in then 180?!! Bullshit you will! Grow a f-in brain! Don't wave yourself off the pitch because suddenly it's eating away at you. What can you do?! Time.....time and the world...swallows events..and it's sad..but that's how it is...And you and me, the world is going to swallow us up, and who knows knows in the end if we leave a mark...but we're doing something!---and I like to think were doing something good with what were given. Don't wave yourself off for this....What do you want? Five years in the nick for nothing?!! Prison is for pricks that don't have their punishment up here (points at his head). Not you....not me....it doesn't make sense. Right?Detective Summer is the best part of this movie....great acting as usual. The movie itself falls a touch flat at the end.......but really? like what was the Indian kid doing riding a bike in the middle of the road at 3am any way.