Observe and Report-
A dumb, pointless comedy or the most brilliantly disguised condemnation of American foreign policy in years?
Ron is a bigoted, arrogant, medicated mallcop. His actions are devasting and unilateral. In his compound, a shopping mall, he is both protectorant and abuser . He is a tin badge with assumed authority. Ron is America, the mall his Iraq.
Ron's daily patrols include harassment of the middle eastern merchants, stops for free coffee (his right) and ogling the beautiful cosmetics girl while insulting her gay co-worker. Ron's world is unfettered until a real crime has to be addressed. When a flasher is accosts various women at the mall, including the subject of his affection, Ron jumps in boldly...and blindly. The first thing he does is reject the real authority Detective Harris (Ray Liotta). Instead, Ron “helps” Harris's investigation by questioning various mall inhabitants and then, without evidence, falsely accusing everyone that Ron distrusts. Scarily, he does this with unflinching conviction. While the flasher is not found, Ron's authority is given new credence by the incident and his confidence is given even greater purpose.
He now has the confidence to apply to become a legitimate police officer. Or, perhaps, plead his case to the U.N. Predictably he fails. He passes the physical and written tests well. It is in the psychological test that we find what we had begun to suspect the whole time. Ron is bi-polar and recently off his medication. Ron is a danger to himself and others. He has no business being a police officer. I guess WMD's were never found. Humiliated, Ron returns to mall with, well... a vengeance.
Minor offenses are responded to disproportionately such as the owner of an illegally parked being tazered and skateboarders being beaten within a inch of their lives with their own boards. Not necessarily thrown into Abu Ghrab, but close. Throughout the film his violence is not addressed in any way by the toothless mall manager. Ron has acted without reproach. All the while, real crimes are go on unresolved. Someone has been stealing from various stores in the plaza and when it turns out to be Ron's second in command Dennis (Michael Pena), Dennis overpowers Ron and flees to a foreign country with a final stash in dramatic fashion. (Haliburton, anyone?)
Again humiliated and convinced that the flasher will reappear, Ron returns to the mall but this time undercover and without permission from the mall manager. His aggression has worsened with the lack of medication and soon the real police are called in. Refusing to leave, the mall is Ron's last stand. There is an euphoria than can accompany a break with reality and Ron is swimming in it. Drawing first blood against the cops, Ron is eventually brought down... Rodney King style.
It's a month later, Ron is back on his medication and back in the mall. Only now he is plainclothes and a customer. He sits by himself in the food court ruminating his life. He is offered a free coffee by the girl working the pretzel stand. She is Ron's only bit of redemption for the entire film. Earlier he had viciously attacked her boss for making her cry. While extreme, it is the only time he acted out of concern for another instead of his own ego.
At that moment the flasher returns. Penis dangling in full view of the mall patrons and the audience. Ron jumps up to chase the flasher down. A footrace ensues and just as looks like the trenchcoat villain has given Ron the slip, Ron appears in front of him, gun in hand (the weapon he was never allowed to carry as a mallcop) and blasts the flasher in shoulder. He then drags his prize victoriously through the mall and then to the police station to say a final “F U” to detective Harris. Ron, seemingly redeemed, gets his job back at the mall and hooks up with the born again christian coffee girl.
Ron is hero.... Really?
It is my sincere hope that this story has no hero. That, upon reflection, it is a cautionary tale warning us against unilateral military solutions. We need reason and rationality to operate in the world. To act any other way is not only dangerous and wrong...but, much like the film, soulless as well.
JAM
