As I noted in my review of In the Land of Saints and Sinners back in November, Liam Neeson is an actor “who lends an unmistakable gravitas and believability to the characters he portrays.” He is always solid, and he comfortably fits into the mold of the 1930s Los Angeles-based private eye just as well as the previous actors who have tackled the Philip Marlowe role — Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, James Garner, Elliott Gould and Robert Mitchum. That’s a heck of a list.
Neil Jordan’s take on the character finds Marlowe (Liam Neeson) in Los Angeles in 1939, approached by a fancy dame (Diane Kruger) to find a guy. She won’t tell him why, but the guy needs to be found; people want him, or what he has. That includes the fancy dame’s mother, a former actress (Jessica Lange), a club manager (Danny Huston), a drug lord (Alan Cumming), two Mexican hoods and assorted other interested parties. Marlowe looks into it, gets beat up, finds out some things, gets beat up some more, turns down the fancy dame and stands by while some of the others kill each other.
This is not a Raymond Chandler story; it is based on “The Black-Eyed Blonde,” a tale by Benjamin Black, which also appears as a movie poster near the end of the movie, so it won’t be familiar to fans of the original Chandler stories. This one is not quite anachronistic, but it has more modern (profane) language, drug elements and savage methodology that is more in line with Neo-noir than those of the 1940s. It is also, sad to say, rather artificial. Miss Kruger and Miss Lange seem unnaturally stiff in their roles, despite the excellent costuming, hair styling and fancy cars they drive (Miss Lange also rides a horse). Danny Huston’s dialogue is too polite, while Ian Hart’s (as a lead detective) is too vulgar. Only Neeson and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (as Cedric the powerhouse chauffeur) seem totally natural and believable.
Like most of the previous Marlowe-involved plots, this one is complex and ultimately confusing. After a while I stopped caring, although I was still intrigued by Marlowe’s stubborn efforts to solve the mystery. As Cedric and the fancy dame both note, everybody in L. A. has secrets, and secret agendas. No one is innocent in the City of Angels. That’s fine, but it means that there is no one but Marlowe to root for, or worry about, in this dangerous story. Personally, I’m tired of all the rotten, selfish characters and stories with crime and more crime that populate modern movies, even if Liam Neeson is around to set things right. ☆ ☆. 10 April 2025.