Inherent
Vice
This
is one of those movies I have been anticipating for months and months.
How could they go wrong? Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson
and starring Joaquin Phoenix are usually words that guarantee
awesomeness. Not this time.
Set in 1970 California, Phoenix stars as Doc – a private eye who
enjoys recreational drugs. His former girlfriend, Shasta (Katherine
Waterston), has shown up looking for help, and Doc knows he
shouldn’t get involved, but, it’s Shasta.
She worries that something is up with her new, rich, married, real
estate mogul boyfriend, Mickey Wolfman (Eric Roberts). When Shasta
disappears, Doc feels he has to jump into the case and find her, which
leads to a tangled web of cops, surfers, dentists and a mysterious
secret organization known as The Golden Fang.
Can Doc get to the bottom of it?
Is there a bottom of it?
Inherent Vice plays out like a psychedelic
trip in Doc’s head, which doesn’t help the audience members
who are staying off drugs while watching the movie.
You can’t deny the cool vibe of Inherent Vice. Anderson
(based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon) has a vivid cast of colorful
characters at his disposal, and individual scenes are executed very
well. It’s the overall meaninglessness of the movie and the
horrible resolution that comes from nowhere that ruins Inherent Vice.
It feels like every scene was conceived of to be as wacky as possible,
rather than advancing a plot. This gives our actors a chance to shine,
but doesn’t serve any type of story.
Phoenix is awesome as a hippie version of Columbo with his quirky
personality, and overall paranoia about the world around him, but what
makes Doc believable is the level of competence Phoenix instills in him
when he’s not playing up the silliness for the camera.
If Doc was a fool, the audience would lose interest instantly, or Inherent
Vice would become a farce. Yet, the audience is left to believe Doc
will get the answers he is seeking, which would keep us involved if
that was the direction of the story.
Plus, you have to love Josh Brolin as Detective Bigfoot Bjornsen.
Brolin is wonderfully deadpan as the stereotypical straight-laced L.A.
detective, but gets to mix it up because, underneath all of the
patriotism and conservatism he exudes, Bigfoot wants to be an actor.
It’s as if Bigfoot is being tempted by the hippies he hates, and
it is hilarious to watch the conflict play out in him.
Also, Joanna Newsom is the perfect narrator for our tale. She gives the
movie its hippie, whimsical feel, brushed with some all knowing
cynicism about how the real world works along with such effortless,
soulful emotion about the action on the screen. You could fall in love
with her just by hearing her voice (but don’t get any ideas
because she’s already married to Andy Samberg).
Anderson might have been true to the novel, but, if that’s the
case, he should have stepped up as a writer and director to change the
plot around to be more compelling and purposeful.
Inherent
Vice is rated R for drug use
throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some violence.
|