Saturday, October 15, 2005

LA Confidential - 1997

This is a very complex well done story. Set in LA of the 50's, it's basically a gritty police drama. The movie follows three very different cops, Kevin Spacey, Guy Pierce and Russell Crow.

Spacey is part of the LAPD/Hollywood overlap. He works as a consultant to a TV show. The fame and the bright lights are very important to him. Pierce is a climber, looking for ways to burnish his career. He's an intellectual type who is constantly told to take off his glasses so as not to project the wrong image. Crow is perhaps the most interesting of the three. He's a brutal man who believes that being a cop sometimes means breaking the rules about police brutality. The first scene with him shows that he's deeply concerned about violence towards women. He knows that he's not the brainy type but he strongly believes that his type of effort is needed to maintain law and justice.

All three are very good actors and they each do very well in very different roles. Other notables in the film include Danny Devito as a tabloid publisher and James Cromwell as the police captain. Also should mention Kim Bassinger who won an Oscar for her role in this film. She plays a high priced hooker who has been 'cut' (surgically altered) to look like a hollywood actress. Her role is utterly forgettable. This might be the least deserving acting Oscar of any of the movies I've seen.

The plot is fairly complex, with lots of twists along the way. About twenty minutes in I asked the FP Gal is she remembered the storyline and we both had to admit that we didn't. It's a very well made movie. In fact, I'll put it into the 'great' category.

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