L.A. Confidential (1997)
L.A. in the fifties. Nice cars, palm trees, swish music. You sense that this is based on a long book when Danny De Vito rushes through his voice-over and fits in about twenty chapters worth before the opening titles finish.
For some reason LAPD has recruited most of its officers from Australia and New Zealand: there’s Mike from Neighbours, the pig-farmer from Babe and the skinhead from Romper Stomper. Sam Neill and Jason Donovan were obviously busy. To add a bit of balance there’s Kevin Spacey whose first line is “I’m not a snitch”, which oddly enough was one of his last lines in The Usual Suspects.
There’s a bit of scene-setting, ironic use of romantic songs and then the plot starts to get in the way of the story. Big punch-up in police station, models made up to look like movie stars, and Kim Basinger who thinks that being out of focus makes her look like Veronica Lake. She’s lucky that no-one knows who Veronica Lake is any more. A corpse in the morgue looks a bit more like Rita Hayworth, but less like a corpse when she blinks. Fortunately the cops don’t notice, being from Australia where this sort of acting is commonplace.
Then there’s a whole lot more of not being able to trust anyone, including one big surprise for people who don’t know the book. The beginning of the end hinges on a
particularly unlikely scene where Mike From Neighbours, who previously has been so uptight that he speaks through gritted teeth, throws himself at Kim Basinger, who after all is old enought to be his mum. General fisticuffs ensue and it all ends up in the best pump-action-shotgun/venetian-blind/faceless-thug interface since Assault on Precinct 13.
Most obvious comparison is Chinatown, but forget it Jake. This one makes the mistake of having an upbeat ending, which takes the edge of the corruption theme. Top acting honours to Russell Crowe; shortly before rolling around with Kim Basinger here, he got to grips with Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. So even if he deserves to be a big star, he doesn’t get any sympathy from me. Everyone else is good, even MFN.
It’s directed by Curtis Hanson, who certainly takes a step up from his previous efforts. Photographed by Dante Spinotti, who fails in the early parts to live up to his work with Michael Mann as he’s trying to make it look like a film noir, but pulls out the style in the last few minutes when colour scheme changes from orange and brown to black and blue. Music by Jerry Goldsmith is as you might expect.
Long and involved, but well worth the effort.
Rating: 
[imdb]0119488[/imdb]
