MARLOWE (2023)

MARLOWE (2023)

Tagline: Nope

(Mystery, Crime, The Seedy Side of Motion Pictures) [R]

This one takes place in 1939 Bay City. Respected, but down on his luck detective Philip Marlowe is hired by Clare Cavendish to look into the disappearance of Nico Peterson who she was having an affair with. As it turns out Clare’s mother Dorothy also wants Nico found also, but neither will say why. As Marlowe begins his search he realizes the trail crosses all of the seediest parts of show business and even the Ambassador, and the powers that be will do anything to hide the truth. 

This is a bit of a time capsule and one thing I really liked about it was that there was a lot of authenticities when it came to the sets, locations, and wardrobe. We got a decent score, but it wasn’t great. The soundtrack itself was fine.  

The acting is all very good and even at 70 years old Liam Neeson (THE ICE ROAD) is still cranking out movies that are all at the very least “not bad”. I will say that Neeson is always good, but this wasn’t a stretch for him. Jessica Lange (KING KONG) takes on the role of Dorothy Cavendish and is solid in this. She has definitely come a long way over the years, but I did like her role in BIG FISH quite a bit better. Diane Kruger (NATIONAL TREASURE) is convincing as Clare Cavendish, but there is a wonky sequence in this where she is trying to sleep with Marlowe and he tells her he’s twice her age. The issue was that it seemed like there were literally zero reasons for her to want him. She had already paid him to do the job and they only had a few conversations related to the case, one of which he called her a liar and stormed off. I am not sure if this was the writer's attempt to give us some onscreen sexual tension between the sexes, but it seemed way out of place. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (SUICIDE SQUAD) is also good as Cedric, but we don’t get introduced to his character till the second half of the film.

I think where this thing falls flat is that after we get to know the characters it’s hard to care about anyone but Nico’s sister and Marlowe. Everyone else is pretty unlikeable. The other issue is the actual mystery itself. This movie is based upon the 2014 novel "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by Benjamin Black which means if this story was close to that, then both weren’t any good. The motives made sense, but we get some weird disconnected stuff that doesn’t make sense at least the way it’s presented. 

This one does have some funny moments and if you are going to see it just for Liam, you will not be disappointed. It is an hour and 50 minutes long but there is enough going on here to where it doesn’t “feel” long. Sometimes a bad story can make an hour feel like a day. This movie doesn’t have that problem because stuff is happening and the pacing works to a large extent. 

Overall I love mysteries, but this thing is too disjointed for me to recommend it. We had several really great mystery movies in 2022, this wasn’t a good start for 2023, but I highly doubt it will end up in my bottom 10 at the end of 2023. 

I have to give this one a 3 out of 7. It’s just okay and the fact that it’s a period piece isn’t enough to save it from problems in execution.

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