In 1939, the famous private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a wealthy heiress, Clare Cavendish, to find her lover, Nico Peterson, who disappeared in the mist. During his investigation, he will discover the dark side of Hollywood.
Liam Neeson may be well into his 70s, but he’s not done playing heroes, even for what would be his 100e movie ! The talented Irish actor, unforgettable in Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York or in the trilogy of Batman by Chris Nolan, brilliantly embodies the private detective Philip Marlowe, in a film noir adapted from the novel The Blacked-Eye Blondeby John Banville.
Marlowe opens in the small office of detective Philip Marlowe, in the presence of the attractive Clare Cavendish (excellent Diane Kruger), wealthy heiress, who wants to find her lover Nico Peterson (François Arnaud, whom the director Neil Jordan had directed in the series The Borgias).
Shortly after his research began, Peterson was pronounced dead. A murder that would have been committed outside the private club The Cabana. But Marlowe’s investigation has only just begun. Was the body found really that of Nico? The famous detective (whom Humphrey Bogart had played in 1946 in the film The Big Sleep) pokes his nose into the Cavendish business and pulls up the thread.
Marlowe takes several interesting detours until its denouement, deftly blending this family drama with a plot about the Mexican underworld and the shady dealings of a Hollywood movie studio. All with a touch of humor, which is welcome.
Besides Liam Neeson, who is even engaged in a few fights – to the point of sighing, at the end of a fight, a tasty “I’m getting too old for this” – all the peripheral roles are worthy of mention. From Dorothy Cavendish, Clare’s mother (Jessica Lange), to the manager of the Cabana club, Floyd Hanson (Danny Huston), passing by the criminal Lou Hendricks (Alan Cumming), without forgetting his driver (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).
Since the character played by Quebec actor François Arnaud (Nico Peterson) is sought after, he is not very present… But we see him in several silent scenes, and he plays (very well) in at least two scenes striking.
Actually, Marlowewho is camped in Los Angeles in 1939, reminds us a little of the atmosphere of the film The Untouchables (by Brian de Palma), which took place during these same years, those of Prohibition, at the time when Al Capone made the rain and the good weather.
We find this same spirit of freedom where everything was allowed – embodied by the villains – that even the representatives of law and order could not eradicate. Marlowe recreates that spirit with gorgeous photography (most of the film was shot in Spain) and that dusty grain depicting those epic struggles between good and evil, which rarely end well.
Indoors
Film noir, detective
Marlowe
Neil Jordan
With Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming
1 h 50