Since Liam Neeson has reinvented himself as an action star so successfully in his old age, it shouldn’t be surprising that he is the oldest person to ever play Raymond Chandler’s iconic mid-20th-century L.A. private eye on the big screen, and yet there’s absolutely nothing distinctive about his Philip Marlowe. The same can be said for the movie, except maybe that, with Neeson, Colm Meaney, Ian Hart, and Danny Huston in the cast and Neil Jordan at the helm, not to mention James Joyce as a sore-thumb plot device, it’s the most Irish-identified take on Chandler you’ll likely ever see. But then, it isn’t based on any of Chandler’s stories, but rather on a Marlowe novel approved by the Chandler estate. Nevertheless, that lack of the master’s imprimatur isn’t the problem. It’s the fact that everyone involved seemed to take for granted that they knew exactly how this kind of genre project is supposed to go when they actually didn’t.

The plot is pure pastiche. A woman (Diane Kruger) walks into Marlowe’s office and hires him to find her errant lover (Francois Arnaud), who works as a props master at a Hollywood studio. In carrying out his task Marlowe interacts with the usual underworld types and crooked cops who variously beat him up and treat him disrespectfully, and while we expect these kinds of indignities, they don’t do anything to illuminate the character. The cynical humor and self-deprecating manner that made Marlowe so special to readers is mostly provided in response, as other characters remark on Marlowe’s moral sense. One even calls him “Sir Lancelot,” which paraphrases Chandler from one of his most famous essays about the art of fiction. Moreover, the vernacular sounds suspiciously post-millennial and self-aware (“I’m too old for this.” You think?). It thus takes even more effort than usual to follow the convolutions of the mystery. The only thing worthy of attention is Jessica Lange as a semi-retired movie star who doesn’t seem to be modeled on anyone we might know. It’s actually an original character, and one, I assume, Lange invented herself. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Chanter Hibiya (050-6868-5001).

Marlowe home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2022 Parallel Films (Marlowe) Ltd./Hills Productions A.I.E./Davis Films