LA CONFIDENTIAL
SYNOPSIS:
It’s the 50s in Los Angeles, the time and place for greed,
gloss, cash, corruption, love and lust all come crashing
together. Jack Vincennes (Spacey), is a cop famous for being a tv
show advisor, and also helps Hudgeons (De Vito) set up photo
opportunity busts for the editor of the world’s first
tabloid journal devoted to scandalous exposes of celebrities,
Hush Hush. He gets involved in a murder investigation in which
fellow detectives Exley (Pearce) and White (Crowe) become more
antagonists than colleagues. The two are seemingly so different,
intellectually and morally, except when it comes to glamour puss
Lynn Bracken (Basinger), who lights their fires, despite the fact
that she is a suspect, and despite the fact that Exley thought he
was unmovable. But nobody is quite what we or they think they are
in the face of such easy money, such seductive games. All the
while, Captain Dudley Smith (Cromwell) watches sagely, until
Exley and White start putting the pieces together.
"Looking overwhelmingly fifties in its colours, costumes,
choice of LA locations and language, LA Confidential is a sort of
cynical Chinatown without the mythical pretensions. Foul-mouthed,
funny and often extremely violent, Hanson’s film actually
has a lot going on beneath its technically proficient,
breathlessly paced surface, not least in the way it gradually
strips away the layers of its characters to reveal what really
makes them tick. Spacey’s apparently terminally corrupt
smooth guy, who cares more about the TV show to which he is an
adviser (a thinly disguised version of the classic Dragnet),
reveals a surprising degree of moral backbone when finally pushed
to the limit. And it doesn’t take much to make Guy
Pearce’s uptight careerist college boy to cross the moral
lines he so smugly draws in the openings scenes. But Russell
Crowe’s fearless, muscle-bound champion of abused women, who
doesn’t hesitate to use force whenever it suits him, is the
film’s most complex character - and one of the few survivors
of the Jacobean tragedy-style blood bath that ends the movie.
Consistently entertaining throughout its quite extended running
time, LA Confidential also boasts the best set-up and executed
gag in recent Hollywood cinema, which had the Cannes audience
chuckling in recurring ripples of the delighted laughter for well
over a minute. And it takes a lot to do that."
Nick Roddick
"A thriller based on a sensational murder, bent cops,
glamorous women, secretive, shadowy figures . . . Armed with
Hitchcock’s golden filmmaking rule (the power of suggestion
is absolute), Curtis Hanson works this well worn path with a
gingerly pace, paints in bold strokes and freshens it with an
edgy, knowing, 90’s tension, thrilling us with scalpel-sharp
wit. That is topped with first class performances from a strong
(and some key Australian) cast – Crowe and Pearce. Basinger
stands out, too; her perfectly tuned, ironic delivery of one
simple line ("I know how he feels,") towards the end is
perhaps the high point of her performance. The photography and
the music fuse to help Hanson take us into this unique world of
Los Angeles back then, which he describes as "knowing,
tortured, twisted, optimistic and funny." He manages to
capture all that, so it is little wonder the critics world over
are urging you to see it."
Andrew L. Urban
"Brilliant, bold entertainment with complex characters
that burn into the psyche. The most satisfying film of the
year."
Louise Keller
"How refreshing to come across a thriller, an
old-fashioned film noir potboiler the ingredients of which mix so
perfectly. This is it, a wonderfully evocative film, a movie that
enhances mood, character and plot to create the perfect thriller.
And to top it all off, it's a darn good yarn, complex, involving
and fascinating with every twist and turn. L.A. Confidential is
also a film containing some solid performances. For such a
distinctively American film to cast two Australians in pivotal
roles might seem sheer folly, but no, genius is at play here,
because the results are fascinating. Russell Crowe gives the kind
of performance he has managed to manufacture throughout his
career, expressing a certain truthful volatility that is pure
Crowe. This is really Guy Pearce's film. He is truly electrifying
as the more detached, by-the-book and intellectual Exley, who
works more from the interior and is utterly convincing as such a
complex character. The only major female character in the film is
played to perfection by Kim Basinger, one of the rare actresses
of the 90s who could have been a star in the 50s. She's
intoxicating to watch. Director Curtis Hanson has crafted a
period thriller straight out of the 50s, and his cinematic flair
and attention to detail, are in evidence with every frame. When
you add a sparkling script based on the best-selling James Ellroy
novel, L.A. Confidential is an atmospheric, surprising and superb
narrative thriller that succeeds not only in creating tension,
but some memorable screen characters beautifully portrayed by a
sterling cast."
Paul Fischer
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CURTIS HANSON INTERVIEW
GUY PEARCE INTERVIEW
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (MA)
(US)
CAST: Kim Basinger, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey,
James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito, Graham Beckel,
Simon Baker-Denny, Matt McCoy, John Mahon, Paul Guilfoyle, Ron
Rifkin, Paolo Seganti, Amber Smith, Gwenda Deacon
DIRECTOR: Curtis Hanson
(Photo: Judy Kopperman)
PRODUCERS: Arnon Milchan, Curtis Hanson, Michael Nathanson
SCRIPT: Brian Helgeland, Curtis Hanson (based on the novel by
James Ellroy)
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dante Spinotti
EDITOR: Peter Honess
MUSIC: Jerry Goldsmith
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Jeannine Oppewall
RUNNING TIME: 136 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: October 30, 1997
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