Q&A (film)
| Q & A | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Sidney Lumet |
| Produced by | Burtt Harris Arnon Milchan |
| Written by |
Sidney Lumet Edwin Torres (book) |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Rubén Blades |
| Cinematography | Andrzej Bartkowiak |
| Edited by | Richard P. Cirincione |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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132 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $6,000,000 |
| Box office | $11,207,891 |
Q & A is a 1990 American crime film written and directed by Sidney Lumet, based on a novel by New York State Supreme Court judge Edwin Torres. It stars Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton and Armand Assante.
Mike Brennan, a tough, crude, decorated NYCPD detective, has a hidden dark side as well as a partnership with certain figures of organized crime. Brennan shoots and kills a small-time Puerto Rican criminal and then threatens witnesses to testify that he acted in self-defense. The Commissioner of Police Kevin Quinn assigns the case to Deputy Attorney Aloysius "Al" Francis Reilly, a young lawyer with a past as a police officer and son of a well-known cop who died in service. Reilly collects Brennan's deposition, who claims to have been acting on a tip from an informant and was forced to shoot in self-defense. Reilly's case leads him to a Puerto Rican crime boss called "Bobby Tex," whose wife Nancy Bosch was once the love of Reilly's life. She ended their relationship years ago after interpreting Al's reaction of surprise as racist when she introduced him to her father, a black man. Al tries to rekindle their past romance, but she rejects him because with Bobby, she feels loved, protected and accepted.
Al, along with detectives Sam "Chappie" Chapman and Luis Valentin, has doubts about the dynamics of the event, knowing the environment of the Puerto Rican underworld. Investigations reveal a link between Quinn and Brennan, while the latter goes on the trail of Montalvo, the only witness who can disprove his testimony of self-defense. Brennan tries threatening Valentin and bribing Chappie for help in finding Montalvo and shutting him up. Meanwhile, Bobby Tex is "invited" by the Mafia to step aside, as Brennan's support is still useful to them. Bobby, in turn, begins looking for Montalvo to use as leverage against Brennan. At the same time he begins to shut down his business in order to retire to private life with Nancy.
Bobby finds Montalvo before Brennan, and together they leave for Puerto Rico, where the smuggler owns a mansion and a yacht. Here he is joined by Al, called secretly to give him an important information about the case. Al, after informing Bloomenfeld, goes to the island, where it is revealed that Quinn was once part of Bobby's gang, and participated in a murder. Brennan appears to be hunting down all of the gang's former members on Quinn's orders, with the intention of erasing Quinn's past to fulfill Quinn's political ambitions. Brennan is forced to go along with it because Quinn is holding an abuse of authority charge over him.
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