Review by C.J. Bunce
Marlowe, the 2022 Rated-R film noir from Neil Jordan (Michael Collins, The Crying Game) is the latest surprise star vehicle for the post-retirement Liam Neeson. Based on the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville, this isn’t Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. But it’s the movie the over-hyped throwback film Mank should have, could have been. A detective show in the style more of L.A. Confidential than the real thing Marlowe is streaming now on Prime Video.
You will feel like you’ve seen this movie before, because the film noir tropes have been reproduced so many times that you can almost fill in the dialogue with actors as the story progresses. So don’t expect to see anything new here. But Jordan and cinematographer Xavi Giménez (The Machinist) have a lot of fun with the camera, and David Holmes (Ocean’s Eleven) knows just the right musical cues to keep the 1930s story well-paced and even fun. Costumer Betsy Heimann (Pulp Fiction, Almost Famous, Reservoir Dogs, Green Book, Jerry Maguire, Lady in the Water) pulled out some great vintage fabrics, especially for the women’s costumes. And of course Mani Martinez and John Beard get the look right, especially with the cars.
Yet, as Neeson’s 100th clocked film, it’s worth watching for the actor’s considered, deliberate approach, which is as well performed as any work by the actor in his prime. Neeson even gets to tangle in good noir style, and kicks some butt believably along the way. In Chandler’s original books, the character Philip Marlowe was 33 in 1936 (so stretch that to 36 for 1939). But in this version of 1939 Neeson doesn’t hide that he could be Kruger’s character’s father. Neeson, who bizarrely has never won an Oscar (a statement on the Academy more than the actor) was pushing 70 when he made the movie. After putting a guy through a sink, his line “I’m getting too old for this” makes for a great laugh. His Marlowe is as compelling, maybe more so, than Humphrey Bogart’s.
Both vintage and not-so-vintage, director Jordan has said the look was inspired by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, which was Scott’s attempt at future noir. It’s interesting to consider watching the movie, which was filmed in Spain and Ireland, despite taking place in L.A. in 1939. Even the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion intro helps give the film some good vintage vibes. What doesn’t work is the R-rating–there’s always something inauthentic about dropping F-bombs into attempts at emulating classic film noir. Every word pulls the viewer out of the movie. But to its credit there also aren’t any lurid sex scenes.
But the movie works because Neeson is the lead, with some solid supporting actors delivering performances as good as you’d find in L.A. Confidential, including Diane Kruger as the platinum blonde dame and Jessica Lange as the Hollywood grande dame. Genre fans will appreciate appearances by Colm Meaney and Alan Cumming. Together with Lange’s character the movie also makes a good Irish movie, with the script and the actors leaning into their Irish dialect and humor.
Other cast members step up to the calibre of the rest: Daniela Melchior plays Lynn Peterson, the dead man’s sister who knows more than she’s saying, Seána Kerslake plays the dead guy’s lover, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is Cedric, the cool driver and henchman for the crime boss played by Cumming. Danny Huston plays Floyd Hanson, another interesting character.
Not a lot of surprises, but this one is simply fun to watch from beginning to end. And there’s a Hollywood-esque MacGuffin to look forward to. Catch Liam Neeson starring as Philip Marlowe in Marlowe, now streaming on Prime Video.
