Marlowe

Watching Marlowe is like watching a mediocre cover band perform a great song.  All the elements and pieces of greatness are there, but the talent seems just a bit off key.  The movie is director Neil Jordan's attempt to revive the classic Private Eye character of the big screen and noir novels of yesterday with an all-star cast, and screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) attempting and seemingly reveling in some classic tough guy dialogue.  But for all of this, the movie can't help but feel a little empty, and it never picks up the pace that's required.

The character of Philip Marlowe originated in the books by Raymond Chandler, and has been brought to life on the screen by everyone from Humphrey Bogart to Robert Mitchum.  In this film, it's Liam Neeson's turn to play the detective, and while he has the talent for it, he comes across a bit more sluggish and slow than perhaps intended.  Maybe he's just playing to the energy of the movie itself, which equally seems to be in no hurry to get to the bottom of its mystery.  The movie, dripping in 1930s atmosphere, feels like an antique in today's cinematic landscape, and despite the strong talent on and behind the camera, feels lazy.  The source material stems from author John Banville's (writing under the pen name Benjamin Black) 2014 novel, The Black-Eyed Blonde, which is unread by me, but if this movie is any indication, played as a "greatest hits" of the detective's stories.

The movie wastes no time by having the mysterious woman walking into the detective's office and giving him his job right in the opening moments.  Said woman is one Claire Cavendish (Diane Kruger), and she wants to hire Marlowe to find her missing lover, Nico Peterson.  Mr. Peterson was a low-level person in the 1930s world of Hollywood film making, but still was quite the ladies man, using his connections.  After some sleuthing, Nico turns up dead, but both Marlowe and Claire believe that he may be much more alive than he lets on, and that someone else was in the car where his body was found.  Naturally, nothing is quite what it seems, and everybody seems to be holding some kind of secret close to their chest.  The movie has all the expected elements of femme fatales and conspiracies, but the energy is not there.

Despite some big name stars including the likes of Jessica Lane, Alan Cumming, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Colm Meany and Danny Huston, Marlowe just doesn't have the air of excitement we expect from a story of this type.  The chemistry is not there, particularly not the potentially sexual one that is supposed to form between Neeson and Kruger.  Everybody looks the part that they are playing, but something is just a bit off.  It starts with Neeson being a bit more subdued than usual in his tough guy roles, and carries all the way through to the rest of the cast.  The women are not sexy or mysterious enough, and the men are not slimy and untrustworthy enough.  This leads to the movie hitting more wrong keys than proper ones.  It doesn't help that this is not a particularly great mystery to begin with, as its too straight forward to make an impression on the viewer.

There is a novelty here to seeing such an old fashioned Hollywood mystery on the big screen, and director Jordan has certainly made a handsome looking film, but these are the only joys I was able to get out of this.  It's not terrible by any means, but as an attempt to revive a long-dormant genre, it just doesn't cut it.

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