POLICE, ADJECTIVE
Written, Produced & Directed by Corneliu Poromboiu
Released by IFC Films
Romanian with English subtitles
Romania. 113 min. Not Rated
With Dragos Bucur, Vlad Ivanov, Irina Saulescu & Ivan Stoica 
 

Writer/director Corneliu Porumboiu, part of the recent Romanian film renaissance, made a witty dark comedy, 12:08, East of Bucharest (2006), which had a healthy dose of absurdism and dry humor that was reminiscent of the best films of the godfather of Romanian directors, Lucian Pintilie, whose The Oak and An Unforgettable Summer (made in the early ’90s) were the last word in vitriolic, pitch-black political satires.

It’s too bad then that Porumboiu’s latest film, Police, Adjective, jettisons all that was effective about his debut by trying to elevate banality to art. The two-hour movie plays out like an extended parody of a mundane police procedural that gives us ever meager returns as it limps to its non-conclusion. Much of the movie follows a stakeout by a detective, Cristi (Dragos Bucur). He obviously dislikes his work, especially since he’s been stuck tailing a teenager who may (or may not) be dealing drugs. When the cop is not complaining to his superior or fellow detectives about how unfair it would be to arrest the young man for some minor infraction that soon might not even be illegal, we see Cristi at home, eating alone as his wife watches the same awful music video again and again in the next room. Long stretches go by with no dialogue as Porumboiu focuses on the mundane details of his protagonist’s typical day or Cristi’s painstakingly detailed reports—in close-up, no less—of his actions while staking out the kid.

The movie culminates in a protracted meeting among Cristi, his partner, and their boss, where definitions of the words “law,” “police,” and “conscience” are read aloud from the dictionary while their superior ponders and parses their meanings. This sequence is the source of the film’s ungainly title, but contrary to what you may have heard, it doesn’t have much dazzling Stoppardian wit in its detailing how bureaucrats bungle even language. Instead, the lengthy scene makes its lone point and proceeds to hammer it home infelicitously, which pretty much sums up the film as a whole.

Porumboiu’s direction has an undeniable audacity. Certain shots of Cristu on his stakeout or at home last for minutes on end, making us think that something, anything, might actually happen at any time, even though it doesn’t. But the ultimate payoff of Police, Adjective is that, sadly, there’s no payoff.  Kevin Filipski
January 5, 2009