I have a feeling that the New York City Tourism Bureau won’t be asking one time commercial director Antoine Fuqua to direct any of their public relation ads. Based on the overwhelming raw, anger, grime and crime he relays in his latest film, “Brooklyn’s Finest,” New York is right next to Hell on the list of “Places I never want to visit!”

“Brooklyn’s Finest” is at its essence, three movies about three different police officers working in the potential racial powder keg of a borough of New York City. Each tale is unique in its own right but artfully pulls together towards the end of the 140-minute movie.  Working from first-time screenwriter Michael C. Martin’s script, Fuqua paints a graphic picture of Brooklyn that is almost suffocating with gang violence and racial tension due to a high-profile killing of a black honor student who a police officer tried to rob, mistaking the youth as a drug dealer.

Martin’s script was submitted to producers who were looking for a “New Jack City 2.”  What they found instead, in my opinion, is the unofficial sequel to the 1989 Spike Lee theatrical essay on racial tension, “Do The Right Thing.”

The opening dialogue between Ethan Hawke’s character Detective Salvatore “Sal” Procida and a police informant (“Law and Order Criminal Intent’s” Vincent D’Onofrio) threads the needle, which sews the moral ambiguities that are the fabric of this character study disguised as a crime drama. Their conversation is about how sometimes justice isn’t simply about right and wrong, but most often about who is and what choice is “righter and wronger.”

Sal is desperately trying to buy a new home for his large family on his meager cop salary. I literally lost count of the number of kids he has (I think five). His asthmatic wife, pregnant with twins, is getting sicker by the day because of their small, mold-infested house. The money seized in drug busts goes to decorating the offices of city officials. Does robbing drug-dealing killers to provide for his brood make Sal “righter” or “wronger?”

Clarence “Tango” Butler (“Hotel Rwanda’s” Don Cheadle) is an undercover cop fighting not to lose his real identity. His wife has filed for divorce and his bosses at the police department continually delay his reassignment to a highly coveted desk. He’s been so deep undercover for so long, he actually served time with and befriended Caz, one of Brooklyn’s biggest drug dealers who saved Tango’s life in prison. Now back on the streets, Caz (“Blade’s” Wesley Snipes) is the subject of a high-powered criminal investigation, which may be key to Tango finally realizing his career goals. Tango must declare his allegiance, either to the police, which continually deny his career ambitions, or to the criminal, who saved his life in prison.

Richard Gere plays Officer Eddie Dugan, a veteran cop just one week away from a retirement that can’t come soon enough. He wakes up in cold sweats he manages with warm whiskey and the barrel of an empty revolver in his mouth. He’s fought a 20-year war with the streets of Brooklyn and left his soul on the battlefield. This is the last person you would want training an impressionable, idealistic rookie, which is exactly what the police brass have ordered. At the end of the day, all Eddie cares about is making it home safely and Chantel (Shannon Kane), the prostitute who is also his confidante.

Each lead actor dive whole-heartedly into their respective roles. Cheadle again lives up to his reputation of a scene-stealer, acting with intensity that transcends the screen. Hawke’s anguish and desperation make Sal an identifiable character and his plight relatable in this age of economic downturns.  Gere, ever the Hollywood prototype of a leading man, does a remarkably good job of playing a shell of a man broken down by the dirt he’s worked his entire career to clean up.

The supporting characters and actors who play them help to define the lead character’s motivations. Some who watch this film will be looking for this to be the one that revives Snipes’ career, which has been mostly limited to direct-to-DVD releases. However, as strong as a performance as Snipes delivers, it is mainly a supporting role to Cheadle’s Tango. Ellen Barkin’s (“Ocean’s Thirteen”) performance as a cocky federal drug agent overseeing the criminal investigation was so stunning you root for Tango to smack the blonde out of her hair.

This time next year I hope to hear this movie in the Academy Award discussion in multiple categories. Elements of “Brooklyn’s Finest” will remind you of “Donnie Brasco,” “New Jack City” and the Fuqua directed “Training Day.” But the clever script paced by punchy dialogue sets this movie apart from other cop dramas by weaving three seemingly different stories together where characters literally cross paths on their individual roads to redemption.

Bottom line: Twenty-one years after Spike Lee pleaded for the people of Brooklyn to “do the right thing,” Fuqua shows it’s easier said than done.

For a different take on the film, visit Dominguez’s Take: Film lacks plot, characters lack depth