Body Cam
Grief is a monster. It preys on our weaknesses and fears, growing with each moment of quiet reflection — and it will consume anyone unable or unwilling to deal with it head-on. That is as true for life as it is for Body Cam, a new creature feature starring a woefully underutilized Mary J. Blige.
The film follows Renee Lomito-Smith (Blige), a New Orleans police officer returning to duty after an extended suspension and still grieving the loss of her young son. Her first patrol back in action culminates with officer Lomito-Smith discovering the body of a fellow officer that defies explanation. Though not assigned to the case, Renee cannot let it go, and her hunt for answers soon becomes an obsession littered with grisly crime scenes and police procedural tropes.
The entity behind the initial murder and those that follow is interesting, but the film never establishes rules for the monster or the world in which it exists. Officer Lomito-Smith sees the creature on body cams, but the footage mysteriously disappears before others can view it. The beast has powers, but they're inconsistent. Sometimes it seems to be righting wrong —, but not always. It kills to protect someone, but other times, it enacts violence in the name of revenge. It can do whatever suits the script best for the scene at hand.
As for its crime element, Body Cam is far more by-the-numbers in its execution. No one believes what Renee claims to be happening, including her partner, and no one seems to care that she soon uses every waking and working hour pursuing her suspicions. Renee continually breaks laws and foregoes her police duties in search of evidence, but her actions have no consequences. She's a woman on a mission, and no one seems to notice or care until the film's final minutes. As a result, the film largely lacks dramatic tension and, coupled with the ambiguous nature of the core evil force, it’s incredibly difficult for viewers to care about the story.
Then there’s the violence, which may be the one area where the film truly excels. Body Cam has some of the most brutal deaths in recent cinematic history, with flying teeth and impalements to spare. The violence is also the only reason the film earns its R rating — so much so that the murders feel unnecessarily aggressive when compared to other elements of the narrative. People may dismiss Renee’s claims, but they're never mean or rude to her, nor are their actions extreme in a manner that would lead viewers to expect such violent ends.
Body Cam makes one last-ditch effort at relevancy and tension with a subplot involving police brutality. The murder of an innocent boy at the hands of cops justifies some of the supernatural activities, and the timeliness of that setup is undeniable. However, the execution of that plot point is haphazard at best. The logic of the story argues that similar instances happen whenever authorities do wrong — or at least should, which the film never denies or explores. If bad people doing bad things led to vengeance by a higher/unseen power, then such events would play out continuously.
The script by Nicholas McCarthy and Richmond Riedel desperately tries to belong to our version of reality. They want us to believe the film takes place right now, and that the crimes we see go unpunished on a seemingly weekly basis are handled by some unseen malevolent force. Sadly, we know that isn’t the case. Dirty cops go unpunished all the time, and it’s up to the people — not some intangible boogeyman — to hold them accountable.
I want to like Body Cam. I found myself trying very hard to reserve judgment until the end, and even as the credits rolled, I tried to explain my complete lack of satisfaction. I don't want that for you. Time is precious, and money is tight. You need to know whether or not a film you pay for and devote some of your existence to experiencing is guaranteed to knock your socks off — and Body Cam is not that movie. There are far more questions than answers, and that imbalance ultimately ruins a promising premise.
Grade: D. Rated R. Available to rent via Amazon Video, iTunes, and other VOD platforms
(Photo: Paramount Pictures)
