Director: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Russell Crowe,Kevin Spacey,Kim Basinger
In L.A. Confidential, Russell Crowe plays one of the baddest motherf***ers
I have ever seen in a movie. Playing bad-ass cop Bud White, Crowe casts an
imposing figure, glowering over bad guys and weaker men like some mythic, film
noir alpha male. Come to think of it, the rest of the movie seems to take after
the film noir tradition pretty faithfully. All the elements are here: a
labyrinthine plot line set in a decadent 1950s Los Angeles, a tough guy with a
soft spot, shady businessmen and corrupt cops, a hooker with a heart of gold,
etc. Lucky for us, this imitation can almost pass off as an original.
L.A.Confidential came out in 1997 to universally great reviews. In
fact, it swept a ton of critics awards and ended up on a bevy of ten-best lists
at the end of the year. Come Oscar time, you would think the movie had a great
shot of sweeping the night-if it weren’t for this small Hollywood opus that
came out that year called Titanic, it would have. L.A. Confidential
had to settle for screenplay honors and an award for Kim Basinger’s turn as a
call girl.
The movie stars Crowe (as the aforementioned bad-ass), Kevin Spacey and Guy
Pearce as a trio of cops who seem to have nothing in common at the start of the
movie, but find their paths on an inexorable collision course as the movie
progresses. The plot is impossibly complex and I’m too lazy to sum it up. It
has something to do with corrupt city government officials and hookers that look
like movie stars and a killing at a diner, etc. Take my word for it though: as
winding as it is, the plot is incredibly well told-the movie never gets too
confusing, even as the twists and turns pile up. All the things that happen in
the story that seem to have no explanation are eventually all explained, the
hallmark of a solid mystery screenplay.
Packed with plot as it is, L.A. Confidential is completely engrossing.
This is one of those movies that professors end up showing in film classes-this
is textbook mystery/film noir writing. In fact, I would say it might be a little
too textbook. There’s none of the jagged messiness of, say, Chinatown.
(And if you haven’t seen that one, skip L.A. Confidential and go
straight for it. Thank me later.)
Of course, the script would be nothing if it weren’t all executed well.
Working with a cast of dozens, Curtis Hanson juggles the intricacies of the plot
masterfully-there are no loose ends. The acting too is top-notch. Kevin Spacey
gives one of his best performances ever as the cynical cop who doesn’t
remember why he joined the force in the first place. Pearce plays a familiar
character: the goody-two shoes, tattletale nerdy guy who knows all the answers,
kinda like Al Gore. Like Gore, Pearce is impressive; unlike Gore, he’s
convincing. And Crowe, as I said before, is the walking definition of
intimidation.
L.A. Confidential is sorta long and kinda pat. But as an example of
Hollywood filmmaking at its best, you couldn’t do any better.
