Runtime: 102 minutes
Directed by: Carl Franklin
Starring: Denzel Washington, Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, Don Cheadle, Maury Chaykin
From: Tristar
As Noirvember winds down, it only made sense for me to finally watch this neonoir which should have been viewed by me long ago. The fact that this will leave The Criterion Channel in a manner of hours pushed me to experience a motion picture which many said should have had sequels-it was based on one of a series of novels by Walter Mosley so sequels had an obvious selection to pick plots from.
In essence it is just like a noir of old; the setting is 1948 Los Angeles and a shady figure asks a blue collar worker to try and find a missing lady as she hangs out in the same world he does, only to discover liars, scandal & murder that goes all the way to a mayoral race. Of course, this is different as it is a Black setting filled with great Black music, colorful characters and yeah, racist moments. “Easy” Rawlins has to look for a lady who literally wears a blue dress & not only does this have some foul language, the MacGuffin that is eventually identified: definitely a plot point that could not have been done in the 40's or 50's.
Of course, Denzel delivered a quality performance as Rawlins; the rest were at least good. It was nice to see Jennifer Beals although for me the highlight was the over the top Mouse, played by Don Cheadle. I'd ask for more of Mouse but perhaps too much of him would have ruined the nice atmosphere or even could have become grating at one point. As is, I dug said atmosphere, along with said music and said swerves. It looks like a vibrant world... if you ignore all the killings, that is. Also, after the movie I realized why a key role was well-cast... it related to an actor's real life background. I've seen some declare this “boring”; to each their own but I do not share that viewpoint. It satisfied my standard noir desires so shame on me for not giving it a shot many years in the past.
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