‘Black n Blue'. Naomie Harris Charged Through It.
The British actress made a name for herself in James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but it was a little indie that changed her career.
Naomie Harris plays a rookie running from bad police officers and drug dealers in Deon Taylor’s violent, astute film.This is not a hard-hitting look at racial relations between police and African Americans, as the title might indicate. Instead it’s an unapologetic piece of genre filmmaking in which Harris is caught between bad cops and a bad neighborhood. She is backed by a steady supporting performance by Tyrese Gibson; efficient, no-nonsense direction by Deon Taylor; and gunmetal gray cinematography by Hollywood veteran Dante Spinotti.
The British-born Harris — best known as Moneypenny in the Daniel Craig Bond films and excellent as Winnie Mandela in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” as well as the mother in “Moonlight” — is Alicia West, a rookie New Orleans cop fresh off two tours in Afghanistan. Little does she know she is operating in another war zone in the very neighborhood where she grew up, an impoverished section of New Orleans in which cops are the enemy.
