Q&A movie storyline. Mike Brennan, a tough, crude, decorated NYPD 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.
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, Armand Assante, Patrick O’Neal, Lee Richardson, Luis Guzmán, Jenny Lumet, Paul Calderon, Dominic Chianese, Leonardo Cimino and Olga Merediz.
Q&A (1990)
Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Armand Assante, Patrick O’Neal, Lee Richardson, Luis Guzmán, Jenny Lumet, Paul Calderon, Dominic Chianese, Leonardo Cimino, Olga Merediz
Screenplay by: Sidney Lumet
Production Design by: Philip Rosenberg
Cinematography by: Andrzej Bartkowiak
Film Editing by: Richard P. Cirincione
Costume Design by: Ann Roth, Neil Spisak
Set Decoration by: Gary J. Brink
Art Direction by: Beth Kuhn
Music by: Rubén Blades
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Release Date: April 27, 1990
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