 When it comes to self-preservation, each and every one of us is capable of betraying the people we love in the blink of an eye. We just don't like to admit it. Screenwriter David Ayer, who penned the coruscating Training Day with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, ventures behind the camera with another uncompromising meditation on loyalty and friendship on the mean streets of south central LA. The tone is relentlessly grim, spattered with scenes of explosive violence, and the film never judges the characters for their morally dubious choices. Los Angeles looks like the most unwelcoming city on earth, sweltering under the unrelenting white-hot glare of the sun. No-one feels the heat more than Gulf War veteran Jim Davis (Christian Bale), who is haunted by nightmarish memories of the conflict - he can still feel the desert on his skin - and is struggling to reintegrate into society. His one lifeline to a brighter future is an application to join the Los Angeles Police Department. With gainful employment, Jim feels certain he could make an honest woman of his Mexican girlfriend Marta, who lives across the border with her family. In the meantime, he's content to drift through the city alongside his best friend Mike (Freddy Rodriguez), who is also unemployed. "I got to find a job to placate my baby," Mike tells Jim, referring to his girlfriend Sylvia (Eva Longoria), whom he helped put through law school and now is nagging him to find work. To keep the peace, Jim offers to help his pal find a job. Instead, the buddies dump the CVs, which Sylvia has helpfully printed out, and go on the prowl for drugs, booze and a little distraction. Harsh Times certainly lives up to its title, ratcheting up the tension until the inevitable ignition of testosterone and pent-up rage. Bale has never been an actor to shy away from demanding or emotionally draining roles - he lost more than 60lbs in body weight to play an insomniac in The Machinist. Here, he wrings out a riveting portrayal of a damaged soul on the brink of self-annihilation, brimming over with self-loathing and determined to assuage the pain by hurting the people closest to him. He sparks an incendiary screen chemistry with Rodriguez as the weak-willed nice guy, whose devotion to his pal comes at a terrible price. By the end of the tense, uncomfortable two hours, we're glad to return to the safety of our cool, cosy reality. | 
Movie double-acts come in all shapes and sizes ...and with varying degrees of success.
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