Marlowe
Marlowe
Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaie
Directed by Neil Jordan
Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaie
Directed by Neil Jordan
The concept of the hard-broiled suit and hat wearing detective has existed in literature for literally centuries, and one of America's most famous detectives of the sort is Philip Marlowe, created by author Raymond Chandler back in the 1930s. Long after Chandler's death, Marlowe continued to live through the approved works of other authors, including John Banville, who's 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde is the basis for the latest film iteration "Marlowe." Joining the likes of Hollywood royalty Humphrey Bogart, George Montgomery, James Garner, Elliot Gould and Robert Mitchum, Liam Neeson is the latest actor to take on the role, and by all rights it should've been a terrific neo-noir thriller, but is so generic and void of any excitement I found myself nodding off several times throughout the film.
Detective Phillip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) is hired by the mysterious Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger) to locate her missing lover, movie-industry worker Nico Peterson (Francois Arnaud). Yet this is just the surface of the mystery, as the apparent death of Nico isn't what it seems, sending Marlowe down the rabbit hole of drugs, murder, and mystery the likes of which he's never seen before - along with the equally mysterious Dorothy Quincannon (Jessica Lange), Clare's mother who's harboring secrets of her own.
For all intents and purposes this should've worked. You have Liam Neeson stepping out from his typical actioneer film (although he does have a few action sequences here, to which he quips in the film, "I'm getting too old for this," and we all agree) and dons the detective hat as Marlowe. There's the sweeping, beautifully cinematic visuals that hearken back to the 1930s. There's the wonderful costume designs that are beautiful and lavish. There's mysteries wrapped in enigmas wrapped in conundrums. There's murder in the most bloodiest kind. There's an intense musical score centering on trumpets. Maybe in the end that's what makes it so yawn-worthy: it's all been done before, and this feels like a cheap carbon copy of better films, most notably "Chinatown."
That's not necessarily to say "Marlowe" is a bad film, just a bland one. Everyone turns in fine performances, especially Neeson and Kruger, but it all gets overshadowed by the sheer boringness (it's not a word but I just made it a word) of it all. The mystery is supposed to be intense and exciting - I mean, you got a man faking his own death by having a poor schlep get his head smashed in by a car's tire like Galllagher crushes (or used to crush I guess, RIP) watermelons, but all it could muster from me was a defeated sigh. The mystery moves forward as any neo-noir film does: with the detective interviewing witnesses, questioning men of ill-repute, getting into scuffles, and seemingly solving the mystery by sheer happenstance. Nothing sets this apart from other films, and it only highlights the fact that those other films were done way better. Maybe if they didn't waste the budget on cigarettes (seriously, every neo-noir film also has every character chain smoking like chimneys, yet lung cancer didn't seem to be a thing back then).
The Score: D
Detective Phillip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) is hired by the mysterious Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger) to locate her missing lover, movie-industry worker Nico Peterson (Francois Arnaud). Yet this is just the surface of the mystery, as the apparent death of Nico isn't what it seems, sending Marlowe down the rabbit hole of drugs, murder, and mystery the likes of which he's never seen before - along with the equally mysterious Dorothy Quincannon (Jessica Lange), Clare's mother who's harboring secrets of her own.
For all intents and purposes this should've worked. You have Liam Neeson stepping out from his typical actioneer film (although he does have a few action sequences here, to which he quips in the film, "I'm getting too old for this," and we all agree) and dons the detective hat as Marlowe. There's the sweeping, beautifully cinematic visuals that hearken back to the 1930s. There's the wonderful costume designs that are beautiful and lavish. There's mysteries wrapped in enigmas wrapped in conundrums. There's murder in the most bloodiest kind. There's an intense musical score centering on trumpets. Maybe in the end that's what makes it so yawn-worthy: it's all been done before, and this feels like a cheap carbon copy of better films, most notably "Chinatown."
That's not necessarily to say "Marlowe" is a bad film, just a bland one. Everyone turns in fine performances, especially Neeson and Kruger, but it all gets overshadowed by the sheer boringness (it's not a word but I just made it a word) of it all. The mystery is supposed to be intense and exciting - I mean, you got a man faking his own death by having a poor schlep get his head smashed in by a car's tire like Galllagher crushes (or used to crush I guess, RIP) watermelons, but all it could muster from me was a defeated sigh. The mystery moves forward as any neo-noir film does: with the detective interviewing witnesses, questioning men of ill-repute, getting into scuffles, and seemingly solving the mystery by sheer happenstance. Nothing sets this apart from other films, and it only highlights the fact that those other films were done way better. Maybe if they didn't waste the budget on cigarettes (seriously, every neo-noir film also has every character chain smoking like chimneys, yet lung cancer didn't seem to be a thing back then).
The Score: D
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