L.A. Confidential (DVD)

Being a girl and watching LA Confidential is like being a little kid in a huge candy store. Whatever flavour you fancy, there’s something to suit everyone.

The ‘flavours’ in question are the three incredibly different male protagonists Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), Officer Budd White (Russell Crowe) and Lt. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce).

Jack is the cocky, suave seen-it-all-before Sergeant who contributes ...
...a regular publicity whore, selling stories to sleazy magazine ‘Hush Hush’ reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Jack allows Hudgens photographic access to any arrests and in return comes out of everything smelling of roses and becoming something of an LA celebrity. As well as, of course, a complete lady-killer, dripping with charm and good manners and suited handsomeness.

Budd White is the rough-as-guts officer, willing ... more

Being a girl and watching LA Confidential is like being a little kid in a huge candy store. Whatever flavour you fancy, there’s something to suit everyone.

The ‘flavours’ in question are the three incredibly different male protagonists Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), Officer Budd White (Russell Crowe) and Lt. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce).

Jack is the cocky, suave seen-it-all-before Sergeant who contributes to the fictional police drama series ‘Badge of Honour’. He’s a regular publicity whore, selling stories to sleazy magazine ‘Hush Hush’ reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito). Jack allows Hudgens photographic access to any arrests and in return comes out of everything smelling of roses and becoming something of an LA celebrity. As well as, of course, a complete lady-killer, dripping with charm and good manners and suited handsomeness.

Budd White is the rough-as-guts officer, willing to beat a confession out of a suspect, or shoot a criminal in the back as he walks away, just in case he happens to get off. Sounds like a hardened thug, right? You’d be wrong. As LA hooker Lynn Bracken puts it, ‘Budd can’t hide the good inside him’. A big softie on the inside, Budd became a cop to get men who use violence against women – like his dad did to his mum before beating her to death. Though he acts like a tough guy, Budd’s the man you’d want to protect you if ever some hardass was getting too close for comfort, then kiss it all better afterwards.

Ed Exley is the new cop on the force, the golden boy son of a legend. Dedicated and conscientious, Ed always plays by the rules, even willing to squeal on his colleagues if they’ve done something wrong, something that gets him promoted to lieutenant at the beginning of the movie. Ed became a detective ‘to catch the guys who thought they could get away with it’ and even though he acts a little square, he’s an awesome sharpshooter and has cheekbones to rival Johnny Depp’s…so you can just about forgive him!

It’s Los Angeles in the 1950s. Notorious mob boss Mickey Cohen has just been imprisoned and someone is killing off his gang members one by one. Our three heroes are united when a robbery at the Nite Owl Café goes wrong, killing fourteen people, including Bud’s ex-partner, forced into early retirement when Ed Exley incriminates him in a prison fight.
Investigations lead the three leads, separately, to the ‘Fleur de Lys’ hooker service, run by Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn), supplying high-class whores that look like movie stars, breathtakingly beautiful Veronica Lake-lookalike Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), and shady heroin dealings that lead right up to the feet of the rich and powerful in LA.
As the plot thickens and the tension simmers, the lines between good and bad become blurred, and it becomes unclear just who is double-crossing who…

If there was ever a movie where every performance is completely and utterly spot on, this is it. Every actor slips seamlessly into their character in such a way that you forget you’re watching a movie, that this isn’t actually real. That’s not Kevin and that’s not Russell, they’re Jack and Budd, respectively, and you’re living this sugar-coated but bitter-centred LA cop life along with them.
Kevin Spacey confirms his place as one of my ultimate favourite actors with his sexy-smart Jack Vincennes, the sergeant who knows how to play the game. From The Life of David Gale to American Beauty to The Usual Suspects to Seven, is there anything that this guy doesn’t excel in? Answers on a postcard, please!
Russell Crowe turns in another flawless role as the tough guy with a heart that he perfected in Gladiator and Proof of Life. As usual, he’s great, saying little but letting the concentration of expressions that flit across his face convey his emotions perfectly. Crowe is one of those actors who doesn’t really need to talk non-stop to turn in a great performance, like Joaquin Phoenix, all he really needs to do is come on screen and stare intensely at the camera and you’re completely hooked.
Aside from Memento, I haven’t seen Guy Pearce in all that much, but from these two roles I have enough to know how good an actor he is. His straight-laced Ed Exley, driven by the determination to measure up to his father, is utterly different from Memento’s Leonard Shelby and his intense brooding vendetta.
The utterly stunning Kim Basinger won an Oscar for Lynn Bracken, the beautiful tart-with-a-heart who appears jaded by her lifestyle but is really just looking for love like the rest of us. Basinger portrays Lynn as a real person, someone who makes mistakes but is willing to accept that. In some ways, Lynn is the most grown-up of all the characters.
Danny DeVito proves once again why such a tiny, rotund, ugly man has had such a successful career. He provides most of the films wicked-tongued humour. DeVito maybe dwarf like in stature but in terms of talent, he’s a giant.
I have to mention James Cromwell as the corrupt chief of police who plays everybody for what he can get out of them. Cromwell’s other most famous role was as the quiet but kindly Farmer Hoggett in Babe, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen two performances so different coming from the same man. The sinister Captain Dudley Smith switches between kindly father figure and ruthless policeman so that you’re never sure which side he’s really on. And I’ve never heard the word ‘Boyo’ be used to such menacing effect!

James’ Elroy’s novel has been masterly adapted by scriptwriter Brian Helgeland and transformed onto the big screen by director Curtis Hanson (the same people behind A Knight’s Tale and Eminem’s surprisingly deep 8 Mile, respectively). The dialogue is cutting and sharp and every character feels real – cool, cocky, evil, heartless, funny and beautiful, maybe, but still utterly real.

Setting a movie in the fifties is a now byword for having fabulous fashion – the ladies swirl around in swirling skirts and softly curled hair, and the men cutting a swell (is that the expression) in elegantly tailored suits. There’s one scene in particular where Jack’s dancing at a ball, which is straight out of a gorgeous fifties movie scene.

Beautiful as the dresses and outfits are, this isn’t The Stepford Wives or Down With Love, it’s a gritty noir thriller and the focus is more on the dialogue and frantically fast-paced action scenes than what Lynn Bracken happens to be wearing. The action is almost perfectly paced – it’s not Kill Bill but it sure as hell has you on the edge of your seat for most of the movie. The final darkened shoot out in particular stands out in your memory as being brilliantly shot – a darkened shed at night with bullets flying, but never so dark or so many bullets that you lose sight of what’s going on.

I’m not sure exactly what else to say, aside from that its really, really good! If you want a smart police thriller that cuts through the Hollywood glamour…this is it.
I’ll just leave you with a couple of my favourite quotes…

Ed Exley: I heard you like to shoot dogs.
Ray Collins: Dogs ain’t got no reason to live.

Dudley Smith: Go back to New Jersey sonny. This is the City of Angels and you haven’t got any wings.

Lynn Bracken: You say f*ck a lot.
Budd White: You f*ck for money.

And finally, the tagline and quote that everybody associates with LA Confidential…’Off the record, On the QT and all very hush-hush’.

xxxx
 

...less