MARLOWE (2022) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Neil Jordan
Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange,
Danny Huston, Alan Cumming, Ian Hart,
Colm Meaney, Adele Akinnouye-Agbaje,
Seána Kerslake, François Arnaud, Patrick Muldoon
Liam Neeson adds his name to the long list of actors who have played Philip Marlowe in a twisty noir mystery set in 1939 Los Angeles. The story's a puzzle involving the corpse of a guy who may not be dead and certain items being smuggled from Mexico, and there's more than a hint of "Chinatown", with a lot of corruption, a troubled mother and daughter (Jessica Lange and Diane Kruger, who look enough alike to be convincing), and Danny Huston as a character who conspicuously resembles the monster his father played in the earlier film. It's a movie whose parts don't always match up. The music's anachronistic, the cinematography (which director Neil Jordan admits was influenced by "Blade Runner") looks a little too crisp and clean, and some of the turns the plot takes are implausibly convenient. Plus, Neeson at 70 seems a little mature to be playing Marlowe. It's enhanced by an odd sense of dislocation - it was shot in Spain and Ireland - and a script that never stops throwing you curveballs. Sometimes there are movies you like without knowing quite why, and sometimes that's part of the puzzle. I guess for me, one of those movies is "Marlowe".
