Marlowe – Sky Cinema

Writers: William Monahan and Neil Jordan

Director: Neil Jordan

Neil Jordan really knows his film noir, well enough to steer clear of the moody black and white setting with shadow and light of mere pastiche of 40s styles and focuses instead on giving the classic tropes a new twenty-first century life. Sky Cinema’s Marlowe feels like an experiment, testing the waters to see if the concept has franchise potential and while the characterisation of one of noir’s most famous detectives Philip Marlowe is a little flat, Jordan’s L.A. Confidential meets Once Upon a Time in Hollywood reimagining of traditional noir certainly has plenty of potential.

Hired to find Clare Cavendish’s missing lover, Private Detective Philip Marlowe is soon embroiled in a complicated story involved a major motion picture studio, a set of unpleasant gangsters and a drug smuggling ring. With jealous husbands, a femme fatal mother and police interest in the case of the missing Mexican prop coordinator, Marlowe struggles to get to the truth until he joins forces with a chauffeur who has plenty of secretes to share.

Written by William Monahan and Jordan from Johan Banville’s tribute novel, Marlowe has a really strong connection to the novels by Raymond Chandler and the vast canon of films made in the 1940s and 1950s under the badge of this incredibly specific and vastly imitated genre. Jordan and Monahan’s skill is to avoid a mere copy by taking the concept forward and not only by filming in colour that produces lots of rich visuals and a silky cinematography, but in also thinking more about female power, the arts lifestyle and the moral role a Private Detective might play in that. Hollywood consequently becomes less seedy but more corrupt as drugs rather than sleaze become the film’s centre while casting no judgements on sexuality and marital affairs.

The story itself is suitably ludicrous, certainly entertaining enough to sustain its 1 hour and 45-minute running time by using the same complex web of organised crime, celebrity and interaction with go-betweens that tend to motor traditional noire, while the easy movement between L.A. and Mexico is something that supports this story as easily as earlier movies travelled to South American locations. Maybe there is not quite enough to elaborate on the chemistry between the absent Nico and Clare to make the whole thing truly plausible, but once you’ve overcome the slow start, the story picks up fairly nicely.

The main problem with Marlowe is sadly Marlowe himself who never really feels like a complete character instead of a conduit for a story that happens around him. Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum are admittedly big shoes to fill but Liam Neeson brings little of distinction to the role. Marlowe is a tad mysterious and enigmatic certainly, but he is never absent or lacking in personality. Neeson enjoys the rough and tumble of the fight scenes but seems a little unsure what to do with himself the rest of the time.

The films is saved, though, by some terrific support from Ian Holm and Colm Meaney as police pals, Jessica Lang outshines Diane Kruger playing her daughter as the naught Dorothy Quincannon while Alan Cumming has a delicious time as a local king pin. Kenneth Branagh has taken Poirot in a possibly controversial new direction and perhaps Jordan has a longer life in mind for this other great detective. But if so, he’ll need a lot more Marlowe in his Marlowe.

Marlowe is screening in cinemas and on Sky Cinema from 17 March.