There’s a point in this movie where Liam Neeson utters the tired line: “I’m getting too old for this.” Well, so am I. The movie never screened for critics, so I went to a 10 p.m. showing at the Angelika, and boy were my wife and I bored. And Neeson sure is “too old for this” as he’s 70, playing someone in his 40s. He just looked old; but he still has that “special set of skills” even in a film noir period piece set in 1939.
It’s a shame that a movie shot so beautifully, with nice costumes, dyed blonde dames, great set design and an incredible cast – just can’t give us anything worth sitting two hours for.
Detective Marlowe (Neeson) gets a visit at his office by Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger, who most became aware of because of Inglourious Basterds, but check out her amazing “Into the Fade” and thank me later). A cigarette is lit, and a drink is poured (is this what they did in offices back in the day? If so, why would anyone want to work from home?). She’s a heiress looking for her lover, Nico, who disappeared a few months earlier. Marlowe is told by his fedora wearing flat-foots, that Nico died outside a ritzy private club. When informed of this, Clare claims she saw him in Tijuana last week, and he’s alive and well.
There’s a great shot of the club, in neon lights, reflecting off a puddle in the street. At the club, we learn the manager (Danny Huston, who I loved in Game Night) is up to no good. As we listen to all the dialogue from all the actors in this, it seems only one person (Alan Cumming) gave us a smile with his words. The rest of the characters felt like they were only going through the motions. They had the right cadence, but there was no chemistry, and it was as if director Neil Jordan knew everything to do to create a noir flick…without making us care about anything that happens. The characters are all one-dimensional, and the clunky dialogue doesn’t help matters.
Jessica Lange chews scenery well enough, and it was cool to see her as an actress who is over the hill (fun fact: she’s just 3 years older than Neeson in real life). As great as the cast is, it was an unknown actor I had the most fun with – Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Cedric.
I did think they nailed the underbelly of the bygone era parties and debauchery of the rich, a lot more realistically than Babylon’s over-the-top craziness. It’s just a shame this detective story had no suspense.
I’m guessing there were plans to make this Philip Marlowe into a series, but with the poor reviews it’s getting (currently around the mid-20s on Rotten Tomatoes), I don’t think there’s much hope. It’s a Chinatown and Long Goodbye wannabe. And I hate to bring those early ‘70s pictures up because you can still pull off this type of neo-noir film. Just look at the brilliant Nightmare Alley from a few years ago.
2 stars out of 5.