BEFORE: Moving from 1930's New York to 1950's, L.A. - but "crime" is really too generic of a subject matter, so I had to kind of break things down a little more, which is tough to do when I haven't seen the films before. (Though I confess I've seen PARTS of this one before, mostly the parts involving Jennifer Connelly - whatever I said about Nicole Kidman last night, just double it for J.C.) So I'm dealing with whatever basic crime/gangster films are left on the list first, then it's a week of "mostly murder", which will take me right up to Spring Break. When I get back from vacation, a couple of random crime/action films will ease me into serial killers, which will lead into hitmen, which should lead into spies. That's the plan, anyway.
There should be multiple ways to link from last night's film - Steve Buscemi from "Billy Bathgate" was also in "New York Stories", and so was Nick Nolte (last heard in "Zookeeper"). That's one way to go. Could have also gone through "Con Air" to Malkovich, for example.
THE PLOT: In 1950's Los Angeles, a special crime squad of the LAPD investigates the murder of a young woman.
AFTER: This movie shares a lot of the same DNA as "L.A. Confidential", in fact it was released just a year before. They both feature L.A. cops in the 1950's, one of whom has anger issues, and a number of beautiful women involved in a sex/blackmail scheme. So why does one get rewarded with Oscar nominations, and the other one just gets a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress (I can't believe IMDB counts that as a "win" - don't they know a Razzie Award is a BAD thing?).
Apparently, it's all in the execution. Something about that film with Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce really struck a chord with people, and this film with Nick Nolte et. al. just didn't. Sure, the plot here is kind of confusing, getting tied up with nuclear bomb tests, filmed sexual trysts, and police brutality - but was "L.A. Confidential" any less confusing, with hookers that looked like starlets, race-based kidnappings and police corruption?
What I end up judging is how the pieces come together, or perhaps fail to. This one has a number of pieces, but how well do they connect with each other? When we learn why the woman in question was killed, does it make sense? Are we satisfied with the answer? We want to know that a person's death has meaning, and wasn't just some random killing. Yes, I know that in real life there isn't always a "why", but in a film we like to see some kind of resolute answer.
What's odd is the conflict of interest here - Nolte's character clearly knows the murder victim, but tries to act like he doesn't. Wouldn't it greatly speed up the investigation if he mentioned that he knew her name? Of course, considering the extent of his relationship with the woman, he really should remove himself from the case - but that would reveal too much too soon, and put his character in an embarrassing position. Still, I'd think that a cop would try to move the investigation forward as quickly as possible.
And this film highlights the difference between a crime film set in the 1950's from one set in modern times - the modern police would rely much more on forensics and lab work, while the 1950's cops apparently relied more on fisticuffs. I'm not quite sure why the "Hat Squad" had four members, since two of them were extremely under-utilized. The same story could have been told with just a central cop character and his partner.
There's a much smaller use of flashback here to reveal key details of the story, but it's still in effect. And the use of the film-within-a-film serves as a stand-in for flashback sequences, since they serve the same purpose. Both are types of story crutches, in my opinion.
Also starring Melanie Griffith (last heard in "Stuart Little 2"), John Malkovich (last seen in "The Killing Fields"), Jennifer Connelly (last seen in "The Dilemma"), Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen (last seen in "Thelma & Louise"), Chris Penn (last seen in "The Darwin Awards"), Treat Williams, Andrew McCarthy, Daniel Baldwin, with cameos from Kyle Chandler, Titus Welliver, Bruce Dern (last seen in "All the Pretty Horses"), Rob Lowe, William Petersen (last seen in "The Contender"), Louise Fletcher and Aaron Neville.
RATING: 4 out of 10 lock-picks
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