HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE (MARLOWE)

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films 

Even the best directors have projects that don't work.

Hitchcock, Ford, Huston, Kurosawa, Fellini, Bergman and Altman all had misfires during their careers.

And Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, Lynch, Tarantino and Ridley Scott have all had misfires too.

But even when their films don't work, you usually find a visual nugget or two  to remind you of their skill. 

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

And so it is with Neil Jordan's 'Marlowe' - a film which on paper should rocket  but never really soars.

Adapted from the Irish novelist John Banville's 2014 novel 'The Black Eyed Blonde,' written under the pen name of Benjamin Black, Liam Neeson finds himself stepping into the shoes once occupied by Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart, Van Heflin, Elliot Gould, Robert Mitchum, James Caan and many others who have played Raymond Chandler's private eye Philip Marlowe.

Set in 1939, the 70 year old Ulsterman's character is working in Hollywood when he is engaged by Diane Kruger's heiress Clare Cavendish to help trace her lover, Francois Arnaud's Pacific Studios prop master Nico Petersen.

All enquiries seem to indicate that Petersen was killed outside the gates of the exclusive Corbata Club run by Danny Huston's Floyd Hanson.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

Ian Hart's LAPD homicide detective Joe Green tells him as much, informing Marlowe that Petersen's disfigured body was even identified in a morgue by his sister, Daniela Melchior's Lynn Petersen.

However Clare Cavendish insists the body is not his and she claims to have seen Nico in the street.

She instructs Marlowe to dig a bit deeper until he traces the whereabouts of the man she has been having an extramarital affair with.

During his enquiries, Marlowe brushes up against Hanson, revealing some uncomfortable truths about his exclusive country club.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

He attracts the attention too of Clare's socialite mum, Jessica Lange's former film star Dorothy Quincannon who is curious to know what her daughter is up to.

Alan Cummings' drug lord Lou Hendricks and his African American chauffeur and henchman Cedric, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, also come into the picture.

There's a Joe Kennedy-style shadowy figure too lurking - an attorney by the name of O'Reilly, played by Mitchell Mullen, who is due to serve as the US Ambassador to the UK and is advising Dorothy but may be involved in the dodgy goings on.

The Philip Marlowe that Jordan and his fellow screenwriter William Monahan conjure up in their film is a world weary, gumshoe private eye.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

The role represents a bit of a departure from the dozens of men of action roles that have dominated Neeson's career over the past 15 years since he scored a big box office hit with the first 'Taken' movie.

So while Neeson's Marlowe gets into a few scrapes with hoodlums in Jordan's film, he does so with a huge sigh and a heavy heart.

The fist fights in the movie are brief and not heavily choreographed.

And therein lies the problem.

Because while the tone of 'Marlowe' is meant to be cynical and weary, the pace of the film is just too languid and the tone too jaded.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

Watching it is like watching a really old vintage car taking to the road.

It looks fantastic but you're not quite certain it's going to last the journey.

Visually, 'Marlowe' is a bit of a feast - thanks to some gorgeous cinematography by Xavi Giminez which makes great use of its exterior locations shot in Barcelona and the interiors in Dublin.

It's so good you really are convinced you are watching events unfolding in pre Second World War California.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

While Jordan has cited 'Blade Runner' as an influence, the film it most resembles is Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown' - a fact underscored by the presence of John Huston's son Danny.

John Beard's production design, Mani Martinez's art direction, Deborah Chambers' set decoration, Betsy Heimann's costumes and Niamh O'Loan's make-up designs hugely contribute to the vibrant look of the film.

But its visual spark stands in stark contrast to the pedestrian pace of the storytelling which struggles to hold the viewer's interest.

'Marlowe' is simply a frustrating watch.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

Deep down it feels like a good film is bursting to get out but it simply doesn't happen 

And while Neeson does his best with Monahan and Jordan's jaded script, the film makes him look old and tired.

Kruger, Huston, Cumming, Melchior and Lange also never quite feel like they're being let loose in the way they should.

The same is true for Patrick Muldoon as Clare's husband Richard, Mullen and Annaud.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

The best performances, though, come from characters on the fringes of the film.

Seana Kerslake perks things up briefly as a flirty screen actress who Marlowe questions during the course of his investigation.

Colm Meaney chews the scenery as another LA detective Bernie Ohls.

Akinnuoye-Agbaje is good value as Cedric, while Hart channels the spirits of Eli Wallach and Joe Pesci as s streetwise cop.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

In an interview to promote 'Marlowe,' Jordan admits he's a hard director to pigeonhole.

Throughout his career he has liked to switch genres and confound narrative expectations.

Unfortunately 'Marlowe' simply does not confound its audiences expectations of the narrative enough.

There are a flashes of greatness in there but not nearly enough to enable 'Marlowe' to claim a place in the top ten films of Jordan's directorial career.

© Sky Cinema & Open Road Films

In fact, it wouldn't make the top fifteen.

However even a disappointing Neil Jordan film is better than a lot of the dross made by studios.

And this is a film which at least is pleasing on the eye, even if it doesn't quite produce narratively. 

('Marlowe' was released in UK and Irish cinemas and simultaneously on Sky Cinema and the NowTV streaming service on March 17, 2024)