Agreat performance makes its own rules. It can allow a director to look better than he has, transform and heighten a script in ways even the writer may not have anticipated, add strength and balance to a co-star's work. In these ways and more, Denzel Washington's exceptional acting elevates "Training Day" to a place it wouldn't otherwise occupy.
Washington is an actor who seems to be always pushing himself to go beyond where he's been before. And even the edge he displayed in "The Hurricane," isn't preparation for what he does with the slashing, streetwise abrasiveness of LAPD Det. Sgt. Alonzo Harris.
The head of his own undercover narcotics unit, Harris is a fearless, ostentatious law unto himself. Wearing gold chains and black leather and driving a customized 1978 Monte Carlo low rider that doubles as his office, Harris uses a piercing stare and charisma you can taste to intimidate everyone in his path, especially rookie cop Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke). It's a driving, galvanic piece of acting that Washington seems to relish at least in part because he's fully aware how much of a departure it is.
Equally surprising is how Washington's performance spurs on his key collaborators, who, at least on paper, do not look all that promising:
* Director Antoine Fuqua, a veteran maker of commercials and music videos with an eye for flash, didn't give any indication in previous features such as "The Replacement Killers" and "Bait" that he'd recognize, let alone know what to do with, a fully realized piece of acting.
* Co-star Hawke has worked consistently since his career-making performance in 1989's "Dead Poet's Society," but much of what he's done has had the indifferent impact of films such as "Great Expectations," "The Newton Boys" and "Snow Falling on Cedars."
* Screenwriter David Ayer's previously produced work, the submarine drama "U-571" and the street racing "The Fast and the Furious," showed a gift for keeping things moving rather than character-intensive dialogue.
Yet though you might not anticipate it, each of these had something to bring to the table that raised the possibility of better work. Fuqua, for instance, had the ability to create an L.A. street ambience infused with an essential wall-to-wall uneasiness. That Hawke playing a stubborn idealist, could hold his own against Washington. Also, he could be believable as the in-over-his head audience surrogate, a capable but inexperienced cop who could handle most things but wasn't prepared for the detective sergeant. And Ayer, who in part grew up in South-Central and was fascinated by the cop-criminal dynamic, brought a real-world sense of how police can cross the line that preceded the LAPD Rampart scandal by several years.
