Night Falls on Manhattan

Sidney Lumet resurrects his corruption-in-the-system format with this effort, which would seem a logical step for the once-great director who fashioned a career out of movies that exposed cops on the take in New York City. Unfortunately Night Falls on Manhattan lacks the integrity of Lumet's Serpico or Q&A; it winds up a well-meaning but muddled mini-epic closer to Harold Becker's City Hall.

Andy Garcia takes on the role of the troubled idealist as Sean Casey, a cop who earns a law degree by night and is then catapulted into the DA's office through a series of improbable circumstances. Just as he's sitting on top of the world, the smell of police corruption arises, implicating his father -- a lifer on the force. The moral dilemma gets swished around too many times for the film's good, but Richard Dreyfuss and Ron Leibman provide some relief as, respectively, the Alan Dershowitz-styled defender of a vicious drug dealer and the New Yawkish DA full of chutzpah. The usually sultry Lena Olin gets a black eye in a throwaway role as the spurious femme fatale. Opens Friday at the Holiday, Showcase, and Tri-Boro cinemas.

-- Tom Meek