Classic Noir formula: Private eye, with lots of personal issues, uncovers intricate misdeeds in high places; excellent musical interlude by African American artists.
True fact: In the 1950s and 60s, in the name of "urban renewal" and "slum clearance," working-class communities of color were bulldozed and replaced by expressways and new high-end development,
Urban renewal sounds like promising material for neo-Noir, but unfortunately this movie offers only a feeble hodge-podge-- and the pacing of the action is tedious. The movie misses the mystery, longing,dread,and suspense at the heart of Noir. References to Noir can't substitute for the real thing (e.g., homage to The Third Man--"oh, look, there is the shadow of Orson Welles"). Norton seemed to be referencing Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Midnight Cowboy. We are constantly being reminded of better movies in a way that distances us from the plot and the characters of this one. And the. "Dominique Strauss Kahn" thematic was handled in a clumsy and borderline offensive way. .
True fact: In the 1950s and 60s, in the name of "urban renewal" and "slum clearance," working-class communities of color were bulldozed and replaced by expressways and new high-end development,
Urban renewal sounds like promising material for neo-Noir, but unfortunately this movie offers only a feeble hodge-podge-- and the pacing of the action is tedious. The movie misses the mystery, longing,dread,and suspense at the heart of Noir. References to Noir can't substitute for the real thing (e.g., homage to The Third Man--"oh, look, there is the shadow of Orson Welles"). Norton seemed to be referencing Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man and Midnight Cowboy. We are constantly being reminded of better movies in a way that distances us from the plot and the characters of this one. And the. "Dominique Strauss Kahn" thematic was handled in a clumsy and borderline offensive way. .