Criticism of ‘Marlowe’, a rarity disguised as classic cinema

Despite working in Hollywood for nearly four decades, Irishman Neil Jordan never really fit in with the prevailing fashions. In a way, it was free verse, and it still is. ‘Marlowe’ fits perfectly with his philosophy: here takes the forms of classic film noir to settle accounts with the industry that has left it aside, resurrects the old style with a smell of artifice and takes us to a postcard California with a suspiciously Mediterranean air to the rhythm of an elegy, of a swan song of a genre that languishes, but that refuses to disappear.

The curious thing is the unexpected backlash of the matter: those continuous verbal exchanges, courtesy of screenwriter William Monahan and Jordan himself; the presence of Danny Huston as a tribute to his father John, who debuted with a film starring precisely Marlowe (‘The Maltese Falcon’); a few action scenes that hurt the eyes because of how sloppyly ridiculous they seem shot, as if laughing at all of Neeson’s post-‘Revenge’ filmography, and where a black driver appears who is capable of admiring Leni Riefenstahl’s cinema. Small great details of a film that it is impossible for you to like, even if you try.

For tasters of rarities disguised as classic cinema

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DATA SHEET

Address: Neil Jordan Distribution: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Country: Ireland Year: 2022 Release date: 12–5-2023 Gender: thriller Script: william monahan Duration: 110 minutes

Synopsis: In the late 1930s, in the underworld of Los Angeles, private detective Philip Marlowe is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress, daughter of a well-known movie star.