Is a lie defensible if it protects the innocent? If the truth wouldn't change a tragic course of events, does it matter? These thorny moral questions are at the heart of "Felony", a thriller that brings together three leading men at the top of their respective games. Fuelled by a complex script by Joel Edgerton and tight direction by Matthew Saville, Felony is a stylish, gripping, compulsively watchable story with an almost unsolvable dilemma at its core.
Malcolm Toohey (Edgerton) has it all: a terrific family and a reputation as an upright cop, a job he loves. One night, after celebrating a successful arrest, he makes a terrible mistake, then, to cover up that mistake, he makes the decision to lie about it - with tragic consequences. Complicit in the affair is senior officer Carl Summer (Tom Wilkinson), an assertive watchdog of "the brethren," whose new partner Jim Melic (Jai Courtney) has the youthful arrogance of knowing very well, he thinks, what is right and what is wrong.