Exposed

Standard police procedural meets art house social study in this New York-set drama whose release version was disowned by writer/director Gee Malik Linton. The studio allegedly excised some 25 minutes exploring in greater depth the story's Dominican milieu, changed Linton's original title, Daughter of God, and then credited him as fictitious director Declan Dale. Be that as it may, what's here on screen is an ungainly offering indeed, with Keanu Reeves making seriously heavy weather of it as a perplexed-looking detective investigating his errant colleague's unexplained demise in a subway slaying. The focus shifts back and forth to Cuban actress Ana de Armas, as a kindergarten teacher from a hardscrabble Dominican background whose Catholic faith might explain the enigmatic visions she believes are angels. It's mildly intriguing at first, but things quickly bog down in a self-consciously mysterious Shyamalan-esque gloom in which very little happens, and does so at a snail's pace. It's clearly intended as a magical-realist take on very genuine social conflicts, but the result, in this edit at least, is a trial to sit through.