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Jan. 29--From a drug-addled haze, homicide detective Terence McDonagh tells a paramour, "Whatever I take is prescription ... except for the heroin."
And the cocaine, marijuana and powerful painkillers (admittedly prescription, just not for him) he can score from drug dealers or intimidated club kids or customers of his prostitute-girlfriend, played by Eva Mendes, or directly from the police property room.
Cameras have nothing on Terence, who knows all about blind spots, about cadging just enough powder so that the remainder still qualifies for a felony charge, and about disposing of pesky voucher copies.
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" is Werner Herzog's atmospheric, occasionally hallucinogenic and always morally dubious tale of a cop who, like his city, is changed forever by Hurricane Katrina.
Neighborhoods are broken and bruised, just like Terence after a back injury sustained rescuing a forgotten prisoner from certain drowning. When a doctor approves him for a return to duty, it's with a warning to expect moderate to severe back pain and a prescription for Vicodin.
He's promoted to lieutenant and honored for extreme valor in the line of duty but, in six months, he's a drug addict snorting powder on the job and screaming at a pharmacist who keeps him waiting for his bottle of pills.
"Bad Lieutenant," which takes its title and concept of a crooked cop from Abel Ferrara's 1993 movie but not much else, tracks Terence as he attempts to solve the drug-related murder of five Senegalese immigrants.
He's fearless and foolhardy as he sinks into the world of gamblers and drug dealers, prompting a suspect to ask, "You trippin' man?"
Was the jump into the snake-bit, fetid water at the beginning his bad-boy baptism or confirmation, or is there a method to his madness? Or is Terence simply bluffing or gambling, as he literally does with a bookie, or making up the renegade rules as he goes along?
"Bad Lieutenant," which tosses in gators, singing iguanas and after-death dancing, depends entirely on Mr. Cage making Terence a lethal mix of grudging admiration, disappointment and disgust. Slightly hunched with one shoulder lower than the other, Mr. Cage looks like a man in perpetual pain.
This is a Big Easy where the rules were already bent, and a single cop gets way more latitude and freedom than you would ever find in real life (or even most movies or TV shows). The questions are: How far will he go? And who will be left standing by the time it's all over?
In addition to Mr. Cage and Ms. Mendes, the cast includes Jennifer Coolidge as the boozy wife of his ex-cop father, rapper Xzibit as a drug dealer and Val Kilmer as a fellow cop.
The end feels rushed and anticlimactic but Mr. Cage is -- like a hurricane -- a force to be reckoned with, following an unpredictable path.
