Cop Car (2015)

*** out of ****

Has there been any actor in the last 30 years that has shown more diversity than Kevin Bacon? If there is, I can't think of who it might be. Hero, villain, victim, bystander, guilty, innocent.... the guy can do it all, and has a habit of surrounding himself with talent that helps him shine. He may not be Al Pacino, but he keeps finding himself in solid films that have helped to craft him a great career (“Footloose” notwithstanding).

“Cop Car” is a really interesting, tense little film. Two young boys (roughly 10 years old) have run away from home and are trekking across fields (apparently in the middle US). They're not too bright for their age, and passing the time by reciting all the swear words they can think of. Surprisingly, they come upon a police car parked in a small grove in the middle of nowhere. It isn't locked, the keys are under the visor, and there is a half empty beer bottle on the hood. They goof around in it for a while, and after starting the engine and finding nobody coming to stop them, the assume “finders keepers” and start a maniacal joyride across the fields.

A quick flashback tells us what happens. The local sheriff (Kevin Bacon) is a pretty dirty cop. He drove the car out there with a couple of bodies in the trunk, and is absent because he's dragging the first one off to an old abandoned well to drop it in (along with a bag of lye). He finally returns to where he left the car to find it missing, and now the game's afoot. He needs to find the car (along with the bloody mess in the trunk) without any of the other local cops being alerted, or else get the hell out of Dodge before having to face a murder rap.

But what happens when the boys hear somebody banging on the trunk from the inside?

I have to admit to really enjoying this film. It's very low-key, I'm sure it was made on a shoestring budget, and it is extremely spartan in the number of cast members and in the settings. Bacon is terrific as the frantic dirty cop, and the movie is laid out in such a way that the rather fantastic plot all seems plausible. The only minor issue I had was with the two young boys, played by James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford. I know 10-year-old boys aren't too worldly, but these two seem pretty damned stupid, even for their age. Every decision they make is completely absent of any concept of repercussions.... it would seem that they might expect some trouble eventually from a stolen police vehicle or a battered half-dead guy in the trunk, but they don't.

Perhaps they were running away from “special class”.....

Even that doesn't detract from the film. It could have been developed a bit more to make the tension more real, but the story is fascinating and the climax well worthwhile. Anyone looking for a totally “Hollywood” ending may be disappointed, but it worked like gangbusters for me. Another winner in a long string of winners from Bacon.