Out of curiosity, when you watched it, did you know beforehand that Penn's character was an undercover cop, or did you quickly deduce it?
I wasn't watching all that carefully in the beginning, so I didn't even know until the funeral, and I thought this worked as a plot twist. Penn's background is mentioned in the IMDb logline, and it's on the DVD case, but not in the trailer. I wonder if it was intended to surprise viewers.
I didn’t read the plot beforehand, and like you, I figured it out a bit slowly, but not as late as you. Penn revealed to his girlfriend that he was an undercover cop before the funeral. I was as surprised as you. Although I am not 100% sure, I think there’s a scene at the beginning of the movie that explains it, but we must have dozed off during that part.
In fairness, the scene in the beginning shows but never says, which makes it rather delightful. Turturro shows the guns/equipment and sets up the meet, then he's apparently killed. I always thought it was great when Penn trades eyes with him at the funeral (it occurs to me now we might be miscommunicating as there's more than one funeral). I did not mean Jackie's funeral where Penn shows Harris his badge. It's the police officer's funeral, and then Penn's on the subway spilling his guts.
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I initially thought you were referring to the second funeral, but I was actually thinking of another scene before the first funeral. I remembered a scene early in the film (around 15-20 minutes in) where someone sends him on a mission as an undercover detective. However, I must have been mistaken. I was probably not focused during one of the scenes and thought I missed an important detail. His role as an undercover detective was implied but not explicitly stated in the first half of the movie.
In hindsight, there are two hints: the first scene where he is given a gun, and the moment when he yells at his so-called "partner" in crime, "Do you know me? Do you know me?" out of concern that his true identity has been discovered.
As you said, "It's rather delightful," and I would add clever.
Great movie.
Yes, I was aware that Penn was setting up the gang. TBH I had mixed feelings about the sting, I know that Harris and Oldman were career criminals and murderers who clearly had long sentences coming but man, I grew up with total assholes too, I’m not sure I could set them up for prison.
shareI knew he was a cop from the beginning. Maybe it's because I'd seen bits of it before I'd watched it all the way through.
ps I never really cared for this movie despite being a Penn fanatic.
For one, the director Phil Joanou was awful. He was famous for directing U2's music videos which mainly involved making Bono look like a demigod. He did a terrible job on this movie, it looks ugly and feels ugly, populated by ugly characters. It's a really unpleasant movie.