Strafversetzt - Mord in Manhattan

I'm not sure how captivating this movie would be for those who didn't love Mike Logan from the first 5 years of "Law & Order". I *think* Chris Noth did a brilliant job conveying Mike's sense of loss, despair, and alienation, but then again, I've missed him sorely from the series. But, even without that background, "Exiled" is a tightly-written and well-acted police procedural, tracking between Staten Island (the scene of Mike's exile) and Manhattan (his lost and desired home), and through the stormy emotional terrain of Mike's mind. The case -- a murdered prostitute -- is far less important than the things it leads them to: a sociopathic mobster and a crooked cop in Mike's old precinct, and even those aren't quite as compelling as the battle Mike fights with his own obsessive desire to get back to his old way of life. In the end, that desire demands more than Mike could ever have dreamed... and the end of the film is painfully real. The Staten Island Ferry visually dominates the film, as is appropriate, as it symbolises Mike's in-between state. And the contrast between the suburban streets of Staten Island and the city (especially for those who remember the episode "God Bless the Child" and Mike's comments about small-town policing) were well done. In fact, the movie was filled with resonating triplets: Staten Island-the ferry-Manhattan; Cragen-Stopher-Van Buren (Mike's bosses); his three partners (past and present); the three women (the wife, the victim, the sister)... and these added to the depth. In short, this is far, far more than a long L&O episode.

It's possible that when Chris Noth did Exiled he might have had some hopes of making Mike Logan the lead character of another police detective series maybe based in Staten Island. Of course his motivation for making a thorough going investigation of a prostitute murder which I can tell you most cops anywhere let alone New York City wouldn't have given five seconds of attention to that kind of homicide, was to get back to New York. And no doubt he feels the work will get him back to Manhattan where the action is.

Anyway the Law And Order cast of 1998 all got into the made for TV film including Dann Florek working the organized crime division before going to sex crimes for Law And Order: Special Victims. Even Ice-T gets into this film playing a pimp who looks real good for the prostitute murder until he gets killed. This all being way before he became better known as Detective Finn Tutuola in Special Victims.

Noth is doing his commuter thing on his way to work in Staten Island when he notices a female body wash up where the ferry is docking. It's a homicide and he asks his supervisor Dabney Coleman for the case. Anything better than breaking up bar fights which they do a lot of on Staten Island. He even gets Detective Dana Eskelson to help him out.

Exiled is a nicely constructed film, maybe too nicely constructed. By coincidence the story takes us to his old precinct which brings in all the familiar Law And Order regulars. It also serendipitously does go back to Staten Island to a noted crime family with Don Tony Musante and his mutant son Costas Mandylor. And as it turns out Eskelson happens to know the family, she and Mandylor grew up together.

It could have been a pilot for another Law And Order spin off, but things didn't work out that way for Chris Noth. He had to wait several more years to get back to Manhattan in Law And Order: Criminal Intent. Noth is now retired from the NYPD, but I wouldn't be surprised if Mike Logan surfaces as a private eye in another film or TV series. Noth goes back to him like Yul Brynner went back to The King And I.

If you can buy all the coincidences Exiled is not a bad film and it sure has a built in audience with all the Law And Order fans.

My wife and I are rabid Law and Order fans, so when they reran this the other week on my day off, I was excited to see it for the first time. I think the series is generally as good as ever overall (some ups and downs), but I agree with several other reviewers here that the classic years were those with Chris Noth and Jill Hennessy.

I have to say, having skipped it when it premiered, I really enjoyed the film. I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to see the familiar settings with a new pair of eyes (Noth's), to the point that I could forgive it some character inconsistencies (e.g., I had a hard time recognizing Lenny Briscoe). It also explained for me where Profaci went (other than over to the Sopranos).

Some remarks on comments by other viewers:

1) The latina maid

The numerous cast changes this series has undergone has given ample opportunity to show that cops don't like having to work with new partners. Logan didn't know there would be a spanish-speaking maid, and he didn't know Rey, so why would he bring him along?

Also, I can't speak for New York, which I wouldn't be surprised to find has a realistic policy for dealing with multilingualism, but we must remember that the L&O franchise is overseen by Dick Wolf from Los Angeles. Here in Occupied Mexico, a shocking number of the non-latino minority (particularly cops) display what I can only describe as clueless pride in knowing NO spanish whatsoever.

2) Staten Island

Having never been there, I can't speak to the endless disdain other New Yorkers express toward S.I. as a boring backwater. It's immaterial to the plot, however. From early on in the movie, it's made clear that the reason Logan is working petty crimes is that in his banishment, HE WAS NOT ASSIGNED TO HOMICIDE. 'Kay?

If you are a huge Law & Order fan, I recommend catching this film when it comes around again. Otherwise, I don't know what your interest would be.

All right, all right, I was ecstatic as the next L&O junkie when I heard that Chris Noth would reprise his role as Mike Logan. I looked forward to this movie for months, lying to every friend, family member, and creditor I have that I was absolutely, positively, unavailable that particular Sunday night. I even told my roommate that he was going to have to live without the X-Files for 1 week.

Mulder and Scully, you never looked so good.

It wasn't that this was a bad movie. It's that it took the easy way out in many cases, which is something Law and Order never does. It was a paint-by-numbers cop drama, and didn't try to be anything else.

I won't spoil the plot by pointing out the various pointless twists--let's just say that anyone with a nodding familiarity with the genre will see the ending a mile away. What really struck me was how hard the writers were trying to make this a "one-lone-cop-against-the-bureaucracy" story.

That might have worked with brand new characters, but we've all watched Mike Logan, Lennie Briscoe, Anita Van Buren, and Jack McCoy for years. We know how they're going to react to situations and to each other. Logan's difficulties with McCoy in this film are plausible--they were never all that friendly during their one year together. But his confrontation with Briscoe seems forced, and the mutual animosity with Van Buren is way out of left field. Logan risked his career for her at one point--over Briscoe's objections. So how exactly does she label him "self-absorbed"?

All in all, it left a bad taste in my mouth. The characters and the actors both deserved better.

I've been a Chris Noth Fan for a long time, and was very upset when he left LAW & ORDER. Mike Logan was a quirky, individualistic character who always left you wanting more. What a treat that Mr. Noth and co-writer Charles Kipps finally told us what happened to Logan after he was banished to Staten Island. In addition to being an enjoyable, fast moving mystery, there was always the underlying angst of Logan's boredom. I'm reminded of the phrase "Be Careful What You Wish For...You May Get It." Logan got what he wished for: He returned to the 2-7, and the Homicide work that he loved, only to find out that you can't go back again.

I'd enjoy seeing a sequel, to find out how the character resolves this.

Good Work, Chris Noth!