The Flock is a American thriller film directed by Andrew Lau, the co-director of the Infernal Affairs trilogy. The film, which marks his first English-language film, stars Richard Gere and Claire Danes.
A hyper-vigilant agent of the Department of Public Safety Erroll Babbage (Richard Gere) checks on registered sex offenders. Burnt out after a long career, he has become frustrated with the system of sex offender monitoring. With little faith in humanity left he takes on one last job to find a missing girl (Kristina Sisco).
He is three weeks away from taking early retirement and his final job is to train his young female replacement Allison Lowry (Claire Danes). After being left a newspaper with his characteristic headline circling, he is convinced the case of kidnapping is connected to a paroled sex offender he’s monitoring and he takes it upon himself to find the victim at all costs.
Errol is eventually forced to leave the department early due to his relentless interrogation of sexual offenders and occasional vigilante actions against them. His efforts center on Viola (KaDee Strickland), a woman who has a history of being abused but is known to have a connection to another culprit that Errol suspects to have taken the girl. Together with his partner they figure out that Viola has become an abuser herself and is the ringleader in a kidnapping and torture syndicate.
They track her down to a deserted scrap heap where they find the latest kidnapped girl as well as corpses of previous victims. The movie ends with Viola being brought to book after Errol considers killing her. Errol and Allison realize that in fighting the monsters involved in sexual offenses, they must not become monsters themselves.
Production notes provided by Freestyle Releasing, The Weinstein Company.
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The Flock
Starring: Richard Gere, Claire Danes, KaDee Strickland, Ray Wise, Russell Sams, Avril Lavigne
Directed by: Andrew Lau
Screenplay by: Hans Bauer, Craig Mitchell
MPAA Rating: R for perverse content involving aberrant sexuality and strong violence, and for language.
Release Date: May 20th, 2008
Studio: Freestyle Releasing, The Weinstein Company