Main Cast: Chris Noth, Dabney Coleman, Dana Eskelson, John Fiore, Dann Florek
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Plot
Essentially a feature-length episode of NBC's long-running series Law & Order, this crime and courtroom drama marks the return of Chris Noth (Detective Mike Logan) to Manhattan's 27th precinct. For the past three years, Logan has been stuck on Staten Island, the result of an incident in which he lost his temper. Regretting his outburst, Logan yearns to return to his home station. A murdered hooker's body found floating in the harbor may provide the key to his return. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The movie begins three years after Logan's last major act in the Law & Order storyline continuity (the 1995 episode in which he punches a corrupt politician/murder suspect on the courthouse steps, in front of reporters). As bureaucratic payback for assaulting a public official, Logan's career lies in ruins. Although kept on the force, he has been demoted and "administratively re-assigned" to port patrol duty on Staten Island -- the NYPD career graveyard. While struggling to cope with feelings of resentment and isolation, fate offers him a chance at redemption.
From here, the movie turns into a whodunit, in largely the same style as a late-1990s L&O episode. A forgotten murder case unexpectedly drifts Logan's way. The case may uncover a dirty-cop conspiracy (ultimately leading back to the very precinct that banished him), and his port patrol commanding officer repeatedly orders him to leave the case to the NYPD "real detectives." Logan sees solving the case as the long hoped-for chance to resurrect his career, and get re-instated as a detective.
Logan (a ladies' man in the original Law & Order) also becomes romantically involved with the victim's relative. Soon Logan must choose between one woman's feelings for him, and doing whatever it takes to regain the only thing he's ever loved: being an NYPD detective.
Dana Eskelson playing Logan's partner, was later featured as a suspect in Season 3 of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Eskelson was also featured in two episodes of Law and Order: SVU, once as a rape victim in Season 4 and again as the mother of a victim of molestation in Season 7.
