An American-produced motion picture: wotta shock
L.A. Confidential is a motion picture. It is brilliant. It is the only one that I've seen all year which deserves to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award.
The story is simple, but the plot demands your complete attention. The story is set in Los Angeles during 1953. Several people are murdered in a diner. One is a cop. That investigation sets off a series of events which seem to meander all about the seamy landscape, yet do tie together at the film's climax.
LA does not have a star per se. Instead, three detectives with wildly different means and motives take turns in the spotlight. Kevin Spacey is the publicity-mongering cop who is in cahoots with a sleazy tabloid publisher played by DeVito. (DeVito also serves as the movie's sometime narrator.) _____ _____ is the pretty boy political animal who will stop at nothing to achieve every promotion that he may or may not deserve. Russell Crowe is the muscle who is not above beating a suspect if the ends justify the means.
Characters abound in this film. Kim Basinger is the hooker who's heart is not pure gold. James Cromwell (from Babe) is LA's police chief. ______ _____ is the player who pimps on the side.
I've read that L.A. Confidential, the novel, is such a huge tome brimming with characters that many people doubt it would ever reach the silver screen. I'll have to take their word on that. In any event, the screenplay is a definite shoe-in for the Best Adaptation Screenplay Award.
One wonders as this motion picture unspools just how the plot threads could possibly tie together for a satisfying ending. Trust me: it does.
Special recognition should be given to the recreation of the time period. The cars, the clothing, the TV programs, whole neighborhoods; they are all dead-on 1950s.
Folks, it doesn't get any better than this. Considering how insipidly brain-dead that the product tie-in vehicles which spew out of Hollywood nowadays (Can you say The Lost World?), with their explosions, special F/X, and creaking one-line quips; L.A. Confidential is stunning. It is modern day film noir. Run, don't walk, to the nearest theater playing this motion picture.