movie review of marlowe

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In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress. In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress. In late 1930s Bay City, a brooding, down on his luck detective is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress.

• Neil Jordan
• William Monahan
• John Banville
• Liam Neeson
• Diane Kruger
• Jessica Lange
• 140 User reviews
• 105 Critic reviews
• 41 Metascore
• 2 nominations

Top cast 36

• Philip Marlowe

• Clare Cavendish

• Dorothy Quincannon
• Office Secretary

• Office Boss

• Nico Peterson

• Det. Joe Green

• Broad with the Cigarette
• (as Kimberly Delonghi)
• Security Guard

• (as Toni Corvillo)

• The Ambassador

• Richard Cavendish

• Lynn Peterson

• (as Jose M. Maciá)
• Pat the Bartender
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia This film is based upon the 2014 novel "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by Benjamin Black , not one of Raymond Chandler 's original Marlowe works.
• Goofs After Liam Neeson's Marlowe is knocked unconscious by the thugs, he tells Ian Hart's police detective that the thugs took his .38 caliber pistol when it was a .45 automatic in the previous scene. Hart hands Marlowe what he calls "another .38," which is a .32 caliber revolver.

Philip Marlowe : [after beating up two thugs] Fuck it!

[grabs a chair and hits one of them in the head]

Philip Marlowe : I'm too old for this shit!

• Connections Referenced in OWV Updates: The Seventh OWV Awards - Last Update of 2022 (2022)
• Soundtracks Coubanakan Written by Louis Sauvat , Robert Champfleury & Moïse Simons (as Moises Simons) Published by S.E.M.I., Paris (France) administered by peermusic (UK) Ltd. Performed by Los Lecuona Cuban Boys Courtesy of Ceiba World Music SL

User reviews 140

• Feb 17, 2023
• How long is Marlowe? Powered by Alexa
• February 15, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• Open Road Films (United States)
• Storyboard Media (United States)
• Hotel la Gavina, S'Agaró, Gerona, Spain
• Parallel Film Productions
• Hills Productions AIE
• Davis-Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• €22,300,000 (estimated)
• Feb 19, 2023

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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‘marlowe’ review: liam neeson in neil jordan’s tired raymond chandler reboot.

Diane Kruger and Jessica Lange also appear in this latest attempt to bring a classic private detective to the big screen.

By Frank Scheck

Frank Scheck

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Legendary characters don’t die. They keep getting reinvented. If they exist in fiction, new authors come along to create new adventures for them. And if they exist onscreen, you can bet that a remake or reboot will come along every generation or so in hopes of recatching that lightning in a bottle.

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The latest tough guy actor to don the fedora is Liam Neeson , in director Neil Jordan ’s new film based on a 2014 novel by John Banville, writing under the name Benjamin Black. Suffice it to say that the results won’t erase anyone’s memories of The Big Sleep or The Long Goodbye . Sticking to film noir traditions to a fault (minus the black & white), Marlowe feels mostly like cinematic karaoke.

It’s not surprising that this effort taking place in Los Angeles in the late 1930s would hew so carefully to nostalgia. The last really good Marlowe movie, 1975’s Farewell, My Lovely (starring Mitchum, who, in my estimation, best embodied the role), came out nearly half a century ago. It’s safe to say that the majority of the intended audience is well into renewing their AARP subscriptions.

As is Neeson, who at 70 is certainly the oldest actor to play the part. To his credit, the veteran actor, his hair dyed an unflattering brown, acknowledges the fact. Right after quickly dispatching a bad guy half his age, his Marlowe mutters, “I’m getting too old for this,” a sentiment that the actor’s agent would probably dispute.  

There’s also a sleazy nightclub owner (is there any other kind?) played by Alan Cumming , clearly relishing the opportunity to employ a molasses-thick Southern accent and utter such lines as “down in the land of the sombrero, the serape and the mule” when referring to Mexico. I don’t know whether the line comes from the novel or was created by screenwriter William Monahan , but if it’s the latter it represents a comedown from his Oscar-winning work on The Departed . Although you have to give him credit for managing to work in references to James Joyce, Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style , and that other Marlowe, Christopher.

The other supporting characters, who generate the feel of figures on a Marlowe-themed board game, include the client’s mother, a jaded Hollywood star (a terrific Jessica Lange , also no stranger to the genre); a couple of Marlowe’s former police colleagues (a colorful Colm Meaney and Ian Hart); and a soft-spoken chauffeur not to be trifled with (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, nearly stealing the picture).

Neeson’s imposing physicality and natural gravitas gives the character a suitable authority, with his advanced years adding a not-unwelcome vulnerability. He certainly wears the fedora and wool suits well, and his oft-repeated phrase “Fair enough” when dealing with difficult situations conveys an interesting air of resignation.

But for all the authentic genre tropes on display, Marlowe never comes to life on its own, lacking the verve or wit to make it feel anything other than a great pop song played by a mediocre cover band.

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One of the charms of Raymond Chandler's detective novels is that you can't figure out exactly what's going on in them. Philip Marlowe is just pouring himself a drink from the office bottle when a chick knocks on the outer door, and within two chapters he's involved with a bizarre cast of maybe two dozen characters, all of whom seem to know each other through relatives in Kansas or a friend in the pen.

Perhaps " The Long Goodbye " is the most complex Chandler plot of all. It ends with at least three sets of explanations, and a double reverse is thrown in after everything seems to be settled. You long for the simplicity of "The Lady in the Lake," where the wrong drowned woman only seemed to be associated with the kingpin of the gambling boat.

Rather than bother checking up on his solutions, I'm generally inclined to trust Chandler. If he had been a lesser writer, his plots would matter more. But his books depend mostly on the texture and style of life in Los Angeles, and on the cynical intelligence of Philip Marlowe.

That's probably why "Marlowe," the latest movie to be based on a Chandler book, is not very satisfactory. Even though director Paul Bogart shot on location, he has not quite captured the gritty quality of Chandler's LA. And James Garner , the latest Marlowe (after Robert Montgomery, Dick Powell and Humphrey Bogart ), is a little too inclined to play for light, wry, James Bond-style laughs.

Bogey was the best Marlowe of all, and that was just as well because " The Big Sleep " (1946) needed somebody to distract from the plot. My contention is that the movie version of "The Big Sleep" never does explain what everyone was up to. But we don't notice that because of Bogart and Lauren Bacall . In "Marlowe," however, the loose ends are more distracting.

I'd be willing to bet that's because the film was recklessly edited to make it shorter. Anyone familiar with the plot of Chandler's "The Little Sister" (on which "Marlowe" is based) can spot the holes.

The film opens with Marlowe going to the rooming house in search of the missing brother. But we're not given that all-important opening scene where the little sister visits Marlowe's office, tells him her story, and hires him, so we can't figure out what he's after until it's too late. From interior evidence in the movie, I'd guess the opening sequence was simply dropped.

That's too bad, because detective movies have got to function at the level of plot, somehow, unless they star Bogart and are written by William Faulkner and just brazen their way through. "Marlowe" isn't brazen enough. Somewhere about the time when the Japanese karate expert wrecks his office (in a very funny scene), we realize Marlowe has lost track of the plot, too.

So we watch suspiciously as Marlowe figures out Gayle Hunnicutt's secret identity, and connects the child psychiatrist with the stripper and identifies the syndicate ice-pick specialist. The editing rhythm of the movie has completely broken down. We don't care what happens next because we don't understand what happened before. "Marlowe" becomes enjoyable only on a basic level; it's fun to watch the action sequences. Especially when the karate expert goes over the edge.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Marlowe (1969)

James Garner as Philip Marlowe

Gayle Hunnicutt as Mavis Wald

Carroll O'Connor as Lt. Christy French

Rita Moreno as Delores Gonzales

Sharon Farrell as Orfamay Quest

Jackie Coogan as Grant W. Hicks

William Daniels as Mr. Crowell

Directed by

• Paul Bogart

Based on the novel "The Little Sister," by

• Raymond Chandler

From a screenplay by

• Stirling Silliphant

Photographed by

• William H. Daniels

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Marlowe Reviews

Marlowe could’ve been Neeson's way out, but he and Jordan retread the same elements from his dull action pictures. I guess we’ll never see Neeson make another good movie again.

Full Review | Original Score: D- | Mar 6, 2024

A not insignificant portion of the dialogue is so hard-boiled you can see the cracks [but] a couple of bright spots in the starry cast [and] handsome production values keep the movie slinking along well enough.

Full Review | Dec 8, 2023

Marlowe isn’t perfectly hard-boiled, but it isn’t scrambled either. It’s fun and it’s fast: Information and wisecracks are packed into every minute of every scene to the point of giddiness.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2023

Marlowe is a stale and pale slab of noir which mistakes narrative crowding and useless exposition for plot and character development and relies on violence and explicit depictions of tinsel town depravity to attempt engagement.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

The ensemble cast, though elegantly dressed with fedoras, three-piece suits, berets and perfectly cut dresses are strangely disassociated from the happenings on screen

Full Review | Aug 25, 2023

While the film might not seem that impressive to someone who just watches blockbuster films it will certainly be savored by those who enjoy a more serious side to their cinema experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 22, 2023

It’s a deluxe nostalgia trip guided by a director who really knows his way around the genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 18, 2023

Jordan does a competent job, but this is not a patch on his best films...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | May 18, 2023

Liam Neeson does a fairly decent job as the latest actor to step into the shoes of Philip Marlowe...No big surprises here, but director Neil Jordan cobbles together a handsome homage to the hard-boiled detective yarns of yore...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 17, 2023

It is useless to regurgitate genre clichés if there's no heart behind it. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2023

Falsehood, threadbare narrative, poor imagery, and a conventional script with nothing exciting to say deluge almost the entire movie. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | May 12, 2023

A detective film that is oozing of the past, making you settle for little. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | May 12, 2023

… engrossing and diverting …

Full Review | Original Score: 15/20 | May 3, 2023

Marlowe flounders between being the noir detective homage it could've been and merely being Neeson's 100th movie. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Apr 28, 2023

This resurrection is more akin with a Zombie movie; the detective is in decay, a mere shadow of what he's been in the novels or previous cinematic adaptations. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 27, 2023

Marlowe is well shot and occasionally quite pleasant to look at. But it is also muddled, muted, poorly paced and missing any of the tension, mystery and bite that it needed.

It’s not February without Liam Neeson hunting someone down and killing them. This time he tries Noir on for size. Give him credit for continuing to try to please his fans and tackling a slightly different style, but Marlowe is just mediocre

Full Review | Apr 10, 2023

Something a little better could have been done with the character, there is no doubt about that, but I still recommend the film to those who miss a slightly more classic and mature kind of cinema in your local theatres. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2023

Despite good intentions, Jordan’s stilted, sluggish and largely suspenseless detective yarn is all over the shop.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 23, 2023

Great direction can elevate a terrible screenplay but it can’t make it good, and this is nowhere near Neil Jordan’s best direction.

Full Review | Mar 22, 2023

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‘road house’ star daniela melchior joins ‘american sweatshop’, breaking news.

‘Marlowe’ Review: Liam Neeson Is The Old-School Gumshoe In Neil Jordan’s Frisky Noir Pastiche

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World-weary gumshoe Philip Marlowe has been played most famously by Humphrey Bogart but also by James Garner, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum and sundry others. Enter Liam Neeson , 70 this year but still apparently capable of disabling five assailants at once with the right small arms and some smashable furniture in Marlowe, Neil Jordan ’s frisky film noir pastiche. He’s in tough company. He also has a tough crowd – film noir purists, who are legion – to please.

The year is 1939; the setting is old Hollywood, though the film actually shot as an Irish-Spanish co-production in Barcelona. Marlowe is commissioned by Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger), a dame who could cut diamonds with her teeth, to find her missing lover. Nico Petersen (François Arnaud) is – or was – a prop master at a film studio, making regular trips to Mexico to buy cheap ornaments that are a literal cover for the drugs he deals in the bowels of an ostensibly classy casino. The police say Petersen has been murdered. Mrs. Cavendish thinks not. Not so far, anyway.

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Everybody wants something on somebody else, says Marlowe at one point. There are a lot of everyones here, swapping Mickey Finns and barbed one-liners; just try to keep up. Mrs. Cavendish’s mother Dorothy (Jessica Lange), a former movie star, may or may not be her daughter’s love rival – not just for the missing man but for her own business partner and for Marlowe too, if either of these gals can swing a date. In the meantime, she tries to commission him as well. And she isn’t the only schemer trying to get Marlowe on the payroll; there’s a lot of money in this town, most of it filthy.

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So what about this Marlowe? Lines like “I’m too old for this,” panted in the middle of a fight, draw an appreciative chuckle from audiences, but Neeson is wearing pretty well. He can still run convincingly and has a neat way of bashing in a pane of glass with his elbow that tells you he’s done this kind of thing before. Obviously, Neeson is also his own genre. Inevitably, he brings the trappings of that genre with him, right into the heart of film noir: even in Bogie’s raincoat, he is recognizably the action guy from Taken , impassive of face and firm of fist.

So he isn’t Raymond Chandler’s Marlowe, to the chagrin of some viewers, but Jordan’s film isn’t Chandler either; it is based on The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black, the thriller writer who in real life is the Irish literary author John Banville. Read it as a commentary on the genre – a kind of meta-text studded with references most film-goers will pick up easily – and it all falls into place. The pacing, the use of light and the characters are illustrative: this is a film about film noir rather than the thing in itself.

It isn’t the first Marlowe film in color, but Jordan takes his color to the max, saturating it in golden light – sunshine outside and the glow of lamps inside – and then playing with that light, reflecting it from multiple mirrors, patterning entire scenes with stripes of shadow cast by Venetian blinds and sometimes peering through the refractions created by two windows in alignment. Similarly, the costumes could come from a “noir” dressing-up box. Neeson has the raincoat; Kruger has crimped bleached hair that, if nothing else, marked her out as a Bad Egg; Arnaud wears a matinee idol’s louche pencil moustache.

A good deal of writing about film noir of the ‘30s and ‘40s delves into its resonances in a world wracked by economic depression and the threat – followed by the horrible reality – of war; it is seen as a theater of anxiety. The modern parallels to those saber-rattling times are easy enough to draw, but nobody should take Marlowe too seriously. Any film featuring Alan Cumming as a gangster, so decadently and fabulously camp he seems destined to die in a frosting of pink bullets, is hardly aiming at streetwise realism.

Nor does it bear too much comparison with classic cinema, but does that matter? Marlowe isn’t perfectly hard-boiled, but it isn’t scrambled either. It’s fun and it’s fast: Information and wisecracks are packed into every minute of every scene to the point of giddiness. Casting is inspired across the board, including those actors whose accents veer dangerously towards Dublin – because what could be more redolent of old Hollywood than the echoes of exile? The sunshine is glorious, the palm trees reach the sky, ice cubes clink in crystal glasses and anyone – actually, in this story, pretty much everyone – can get away with murder. You might as well enjoy it.

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‘Marlowe’ Review: Aged Action Star Takes on Extra-Lurid Noir Underworld

Dir. neil jordan — 3.5 stars.

Philip Marlowe is back on the big screen for the first time since the 1970s, this time in the concisely titled “Marlowe,” directed by Neil Jordan. Liam Neeson, now 70, is the oldest actor to bring the famed private investigator to life on screen, surpassing Robert Mitchum, who starred in the two most recent Marlowe films. Neeson, however, brings his own aged stoic action hero flavor to the classic character. The film’s story follows tried-and-true noir conventions, while the use of color and the foregrounding of graphic violence makes it stand apart from its classic antecedents.

Jordan’s “Marlowe” begins with a groggy Philip Marlowe getting out of bed, into his night robe, and preparing for the day in his quiet hillside bungalow. This scene recalls the opening of Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye,” the landmark neo-noir film starring Elliott Gould as a reinvented 1970s Philip Marlowe. However, Gould’s young Marlowe wakes up in yesterday’s clothes, unshaven and dirty. Neeson is introduced as a more composed version of this famous protagonist. From the start, “Marlowe” is at once a homage to its forerunners as well as a new, more matured take on a classic genre.

Neeson’s Marlowe also lacks the cynical wisecracking charisma of an Elliott Gould or Bogart, notable Marlowes of yesteryear. Nevertheless, Neeson’s reserve makes his infrequent outbursts that much more exciting in the scenes where the film allows for his action star persona to come out. While wielding a gun or picking up and tossing an evil henchman, Neeson’s quiet power shines through. While those who seek the witty, biting one-liners of a classic noir gumshoe may be disappointed by Neeson’s portrayal, his slow-moving, imposing six-foot-4-inch presence has its own effect.

Visually, the break from classic noir is clear from the start. The establishing cityscape shots are not shadowy, grimy, and grayscale but rather rendered in colorful CGI with a digital gleam. A cinematographic cleanliness pervades much of the film, in striking contrast to the visual grittiness of classic noir and neo-noir. Even a film like “Blade Runner,” which was an important reference for Jordan, surpasses “Marlowe” in capturing the seedy underbelly of dystopian Los Angeles by using dramatic lighting, cluttered sets, and emphatic colors to much greater effect. In this last respect, however, “Marlowe” does succeed in climactic sequences, where the use of color punctuates Neeson and his new-found sidekick’s descent into the bowels of the city.

The film, however, makes up for its lack of visual grittiness through repeated uses, if not abuses, of graphic violence, brought to life in bright color. “Marlowe” chooses to foreground the violence in many instances where older films might have toned it down. Violence is indisputably a staple of the genre; however, there is no subtlety in the bullet-riddling of characters, the graphic brutalized corpses, and, most strikingly, a car running over somebody’s head. For better or worse, graphic violence is a vivid spectacle in this film more so than in most of its noir counterparts, save for, perhaps, the inspirational “Blade Runner.”

The script, by William Monahan (“The Departed”) sticks to form. Quippy dialogue, chock full of curses, slurs, and innuendos, propels the movie. New characters and plot developments are introduced at every turn; murders, betrayals, and even a mid-movie columbarium chase scene keep the movie engaging. With all these twists and turns, the film quickly establishes a convoluted, web-like plot to rival any classic noir. While the confusing storyline is a nice homage to the noir of old, it can have the negative effect of diminishing the climactic payoff.

As long as you do not get lost between the fast-paced dialogue and the slow-paced movement of the now-elderly, though still powerful, lead actor, “Marlowe” will pay dividends as a modern reworking of a classic genre, albeit with less authentic grittiness and perhaps an over-reliance on compensatory graphic violence.

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Review: ‘Marlowe,’ with Neeson, resurrects a vintage gumshoe

This image released by Open Road Films shows Liam Neeson in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

This image released by Open Road Films shows Diane Kruger, left, and Liam Neeson in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

This image released by Open Road Films shows Jessica Lange in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

This image released by Open Road Films shows Danny Huston in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

This image released by Open Road Films shows Diane Kruger in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

This image released by Open Road Films shows Alan Cumming in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

This image released by Open Road Films shows Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in a scene from “Marlowe.” (Open Road Films via AP)

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The richly hard-boiled terrain of detective Philip Marlowe has always been, to quote Raymond Chandler, “a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”

Chandler’s Los Angeles gumshoe has stretched across some of the most fertile decades of American cinema, from Howard Hawks’ seductively cryptic “The Big Sleep” (1946) to Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” (1973). Having been played by Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Mitchum and Elliot Gould, among others, he’s less a character than a legacy to be passed down, like a cherished dark fedora.

But it’s been a long time, almost half a century, since Marlowe was notably portrayed on the big screen. “Marlowe,” with Liam Neeson as the private eye, is a reclamation project, a bid to recapture some old-school, tough-talking movie magic. And, intriguingly, “Marlowe” is not taken directly from Chandler. It’s instead an original (albeit deeply faithful) interpretation of the character penned by William Monahan (screenwriter of “The Departed”), adapted from John Banville’s 2014 book, “The Black-Eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel.”

The urge for imitation is an understandably strong one. Who wouldn’t want to write sentences like: “She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.” And “Marlowe” seemingly has all the requisite trappings. Venetian blinds. Femme fatales. The sinister underbelly of polite society. So why does — to paraphrase Chandler again — “Marlowe” mostly just kill time and die hard?

The film, which opens Friday in theaters, is a handsomely made period piece crafted with obvious affection for film noir by the veteran director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”), plus a top flight cast including Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Danny Huston and Alan Cumming. Yet “Marlowe,” enveloped with a strong smell of mothballs, feels like an old pinstripe suit that’s been taken out of the closet for no apparent reason. Neeson’s Marlowe punches harder, but that’s about all that distinguishes the film, which has made surprisingly little effort to reconsider Marlowe from a new perspective. Marlowe feels more like a mummy purposelessly raised from the dead.

The year is 1939, which happens to be when Chandler’s flatfoot debuted on the page, in “The Big Sleep.” We’re back in early Los Angeles, a still deeply intoxicating moment in pre-freeway California. Unfortunately, as delicious as some settings here can be — iced tea sipping on a veranda, a lush neon-signed nightclub — “Marlowe” was largely shot in Dublin and Barcelona, robbing the tale of possibly its most important character: Los Angeles.

Like countless private eye tales before it, “Marlowe” opens with a mysterious woman — Clare Cavendish, an Irish-American heiress — enlisting a detective (Marlowe, naturally) for a job. She wants him to find her lost lover (François Arnaud), a search that leads Marlowe to an exclusive members’ club that has some very vicious things going on behind closed doors. It’s overseen by the wide-smiling Floyd Hanson (a brightly brutish Huston), whose toothy grin barely disguises his underlying menace. Like Marlowe, he’s a veteran of the war, and if anything sticks in this stale tale, it’s the way he shrugs off past horrors while carrying them into daily life. “We’re alive and others are not, and it’s a pleasant morning,” he neatly summarizes to Marlowe.

What else works? Lange gets a few fine scenes as Cavendish’s mother, Dorothy Quincannon, a former Hollywood star whose daughter was played in the papers as her niece, so as not to age her. There are some hints of a potentially absorbing mother-daughter femme fatale twist. But “Marlowe” lacks both a meaningful mystery for Marlowe or a narrative as lusciously oblique as “The Big Sleep.” There are some decent stabs at visual poetry by cinematographer Xavi Gimenez but they blend into the film’s sepia wash of yellow. The language occasionally pops — Cumming’s gangster quotes from “The Elements of Style” — but those attempts feel forced.

And as much as Neeson might seem to have the special set of skills required to play Marlowe, his detective feels hollow and maybe a little too tired. Neeson can be a man of rugged force on screen, of course, but his thin growl is less suited to hard-boiled poetry than you would think. No, the best Marlowe is still the first: Dick Powell in 1944’s “Murder, My Sweet,” adapted from Chandler’s “Farewell, My Lovely.” It takes a droller detective to make Marlowe sing in lines like: “I caught the blackjack right behind my ear. A black pool opened up at my feet. I dived in. It had no bottom. I felt pretty good — like an amputated leg.”

“Marlowe,” a Briarcliff Entertainment release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language, violent content, some sexual material and brief drug use. Running time: 110 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

‘Marlowe’ Review: Liam Neeson’s Outing as the Iconic Private Eye is Less a ‘Big Sleep’ Than a Major Snooze

Neil Jordan fails to find form in this muddled, roundly miscast Irish-Iberian attempt to revive Raymond Chandler's legacy.

By Guy Lodge

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As it is, Dublin and Barcelona take turns subbing in for Chandler’s fictionalized Los Angeles district of “Bay City,” neither one very convincingly; DP Xavi Gimenez paints over the geographical disparities with a uniform yellow filter that at least lends a fittingly twilit air to proceedings. The year is 1939 — the same year, as it happens, that Marlowe made his literary debut under that name in “The Big Sleep” — but the eponymous detective is a far older, wearier figure than in Chandler’s stories of the era, inclined more toward resigned shrugs than cynical wisecracks, his every line emerging as a kind of sigh.

Others complicating this living-dead investigation include lascivious gangster Lou Hendricks (a ripe Alan Cumming, saddled with a “back entrance” pun), his ambiguously loyal chauffeur Cedric (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, saddled with a dated racial stereotype), and Clare’s former movie star mother Dorothy Quincannon (Jessica Lange, saddled in rigid equestrian garb), a hostile, secretive broad whose question marks only begin with her plummy English delivery. “You’re a long, long way from Tipperary, Dorothy,” Marlowe mutters in the film’s most inadvertently amusing one-liner: The audience may well wonder how close she ever was.

Chandler’s plots were never designed to be neatly disentangled: The best of them of them are so cryptic as to be immersive, drawing readers and viewers into the characters’ own obsessive circling. “Marlowe,” however, offers inscrutability without intrigue, its mystery both too easily solved and too muddily motivated to pass muster, while its various villains and macguffins and red herrings check off genre boxes without building the requisite atmospheric haze. Marlowe himself, meanwhile, should be aloof but not as disengaged as he appears here: The veritable gorge of missing chemistry between Neeson’s gumshoe and Kruger’s femme fatale ensures neither party’s persistence with the case makes a whole lot of sense. “He must sense something between us,” Clare purrs following a prickly encounter between Marlowe and her ineffectual husband, waiting a beat before adding, “Something sexual .” Audiences may be glad of the clarification.

Jordan and Monahan are keen on the kind of dialogue that wouldn’t have got past the Hays Code in film noir’s heyday, yet its preponderance of four-letter words and franker allusions leaves “Marlowe” feeling more artificial than edgy, a permissive cosplay exercise rather than a fresh genre intervention. Where Robert Altman’s 1970s-set “The Long Goodbye” ingeniously rewrote Marlowe for a then-new Hollywood, Jordan’s film is both resolutely conservative in its period framing and irksomely postmodern in its audience pandering: A strained Leni Riefenstahl shoutout is played for laughs, though the film risks no historical or political ideas of its own.

Indeed, the most contemporary embellishment here may be Neeson’s occasional, very non-noir switch-flip into all-out “Taken” mode, when his Marlowe briefly sets aside the droopy ennui to dispatch baddies with find-you-and-kill-you fisticuffs. “I’m getting too old for this,” he even growls after battering another disposable heavy, at which point it’s not clear who or what the joke is on: the film’s oddly placed star, its half-heartedly revived hero, or the genre it only intermittently appears to love. “The key to Hollywood is knowing when the game is up,” Lange’s imperious diva advises Marlowe at one point; “Marlowe,” on the other hand, never gets the memo.

Reviewed at San Sebastian Film Festival (Out of Competition — Closing Film), Sept. 23, 2022. Running time: 109 MIN.

• Production: (Ireland-Spain-France) An Open Road Films (in U.S.) release of a Parallel Films, Hills Prods., Davis Films production. (World sales: Storyboard Media, Los Angeles.) Producers: Alan Moloney, Gary Levinsohn, Mark Fasano, Billy Hines, Philip Kim, Patrick Hibler.
• Crew: Director: Neil Jordan. Screenplay: Jordan, William Monahan, based on the novel "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by John Banville. Camera: Xavi Gimenez. Editor: Mick Mahon. Music: David Holmes.
• With: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Colm Meaney, Ian Hart, Alan Cumming, Danny Huston, Seana Kerslake. (English dialogue)

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Common Sense Media Review

Violence, drugs in slick, cynical private-eye story.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Marlowe is a 1930s-set mystery/thriller featuring Raymond Chandler's iconic literary detective character Philip Marlowe (Liam Neeson), although it's based on a newer 2014 novel by John Banville. Violence includes guns and shootings (sometimes fatal), blood spurts and bloody wounds,…

Why Age 15+?

Guns and shooting (some fatal), with blood spurts. Dead bodies. Bloody crime sce

Several uses of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "up your ass," "goddamn,

Scenes in a sex club include a seemingly naked woman covered with cash, a man sl

Character sniffs cocaine. Characters sell drugs. Frequent cigarette smoking thro

Any Positive Content?

Movie is largely about wealth and power leading to corruption, greed, hypocrisy,

Marlowe works hard to keep ahold of his moral center, trying to do the right thi

Many central characters are White men; a Black character (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agba

Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting (some fatal), with blood spurts. Dead bodies. Bloody crime scene. Car runs over a person's head, squishing it. Character threatened by two others with garden shears and shovel. Several scenes of fighting, punching, head-bashing, characters beaten up. Woman threatened with gun. Knife held to woman's throat. Character handcuffed to wall. Character grabbed by lapel, shoved up against wall. Building on fire. A character throws a tantrum in a restaurant, flinging a tablecloth from a table. A movie shoot depicts a man being shot by a Tommy Gun and crashing through a window. Actor made up to look like her eye has been shot out. Violent dialogue. Nazi symbols depicted during movie shoot.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "up your ass," "goddamn," "hell," "Jesus" (as an exclamation), "damn" "whore."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Scenes in a sex club include a seemingly naked woman covered with cash, a man slipping cash into a woman's stocking, women dancing in suggestive ways, etc. Sex-related dialogue. Discussions of infidelity, characters with many partners. Flirting. Kissing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Character sniffs cocaine. Characters sell drugs. Frequent cigarette smoking throughout. Characters drink whiskey, scotch, and beer in several scenes. "Mexican powder" smuggled in statue. Characters are given "Mickey Finns" (i.e., knockout drugs). Dialogue about drug use ("heroin," "marks on his arms," etc.).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie is largely about wealth and power leading to corruption, greed, hypocrisy, and immorality. Discussion about how, especially in the 1930s, men could rise to power almost effortlessly while women were locked out.

Positive Role Models

Marlowe works hard to keep ahold of his moral center, trying to do the right thing, but due to the world he inhabits, he often resorts to lowdown schemes or violent behavior. He does show kindness to another character.

Diverse Representations

Many central characters are White men; a Black character (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) teams up with the main character to take down some villains. He has some agency, makes certain decisions on his own. But he's still viewed as a servant in the movie's 1930s setting, with far less power than his White counterparts. Women are depicted as being kept down by the system, but certain female characters with agency are able to manipulate things to gain advantage. Posters for a real movie called Mexican Spitfire , which starred the real-life Mexican-born performer Lupe Velez. Latino characters are depicted in minor roles as drug dealers. Minor characters use the terms "wetbacks" and "beaners." Term "Mick" is used to describe an Irish person.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Marlowe is a 1930s-set mystery/thriller featuring Raymond Chandler's iconic literary detective character Philip Marlowe ( Liam Neeson ), although it's based on a newer 2014 novel by John Banville. Violence includes guns and shootings (sometimes fatal), blood spurts and bloody wounds, dead bodies, fighting, punching, head-bashing, etc. A character's head is run over by a car, and a woman is threatened with a knife and a gun. There's kissing, mature sexual dialogue, infidelity, and brief scenes inside a sex club with scantily clad women. Language includes several uses of "f--k," plus "s--t," "ass," "goddamn," and more. Drug smuggling is part of the plot, a character sniffs cocaine, and characters drink (mainly whiskey) frequently and smoke cigarettes constantly. The story is more cynical than exciting or clever, but veteran director Neil Jordan 's skill and Neeson's slick performance make it worth a look for teens and up. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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• Parents say (2)

Based on 2 parent reviews

Just watch all but the last 5 minutes...

What's the story.

In MARLOWE, it's 1939, and private eye Philip Marlowe ( Liam Neeson ) is visited by society woman Clare Cavendish ( Diane Kruger ). She hires him to locate her missing lover, Nico Peterson, who's been declared dead, but Clare insists that he's still alive. Things get even twistier when Nico's sister, Lynn (Daniela Melchior), is brutally murdered. As Marlowe digs deeper, he finds himself in a world of faded movie stars ( Jessica Lange ) and dirty schemers and shady businessmen like Lou Hendricks ( Alan Cumming ) and Floyd Hanson ( Danny Huston ), with everything leading to a powerful character called The Ambassador. After Hanson makes his move, capturing and torturing Hendricks to find the location of a valuable object, Marlowe teams up with Hendricks' driver, Cedric ( Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ), to take matters into his own hands.

Is It Any Good?

While the mystery here may disappoint Raymond Chandler fans, the rest of this well-crafted detective movie enthralls with its stylish, sordid underworld and fresh take on a classic character. Veteran director Neil Jordan directs Marlowe , and his high level of skill is immediately apparent. In his decades-long career, Jordan has proven to be most at home with crime stories, like this and the classic Mona Lisa . He has also worked with Liam Neeson several times, including on the biopic Michael Collins . Between them, there's hardly a misstep here, with Neeson finding Marlowe's complex moral center, as well as his dry charm. The catch is that this isn't a classic detective story like The Big Sleep . There isn't really an aha! moment in which everything becomes clear. Marlowe is more of a cynical, subversive story -- like Robert Altman 's grungy version of Chandler's The Long Goodbye -- using its familiar setting and characters to uncover hypocrisy, greed, and immorality. It can feel like a bit of a drag, but the point is not to wallow in nostalgia, but rather to suggest that the good ol' days weren't necessarily good.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Marlowe 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

What are the characters' attitudes toward sex in this movie? What values are imparted?

How are smoking, drinking, and drug use depicted? Are they glamorized? Are there consequences? Why is that important?

How is the Black character, Cedric, depicted? Does he have agency? How is his character affected by the time in which the story takes place?

How does this take on Marlowe differ from previous versions of the character? How is he similar?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : April 18, 2023
• Cast : Liam Neeson , Diane Kruger
• Director : Neil Jordan
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Open Road Films
• Genre : Thriller
• Topics : Book Characters
• Run time : 110 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language, violent content, some sexual material and brief drug use
• Last updated : May 10, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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It struggles to be intriguing, or even mildly enjoyable, pivoting from one mysterious subplot to another with little interest in its own narrative.

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Marlowe Is Noir, Straight, No Twist – Review

Marlowe , the new film starring Liam Neeson as the classic hard-boiled detective Philip Marlowe, opens with a shot of a blonde in a red dress sitting in an office. The camera pans slowly, and as it does we see we’re viewing here from the building across the way, Venetian blinds obscuring our view. Pull back some more and we find a ruffled man smoking a cigarette looking out the window in his shadowed office, his name printed on the fogged glass door.

This lady in red turns out to be a very brief red (literally) herring, but the rest of the shot is not. In its first minute, Marlowe rapidly runs through a gamut of tropes of classic film noir, instantly telling the viewer that this film is playing noir straight — no neo-noir, neon noir, sci-fi noir, or any other spinoffs of the genre. It is, in a day and age of films deconstructing genre, an ironically innovative take, and for that, it should get some praise.

The movie is not based on any of Raymond Chandler’s original pulp novels but a 2014 Philip Marlowe story called The Black-Eyed Blonde by Benjamin Black. In it we find Marlowe (Neeson) taking on the case of femme fatale and heiress Clare Cavendale (Diane Kruger) after her lover is supposedly murdered. Pulled into a family drama that includes her mother Dorothy (Jessica Lange), crime boss Lou Hendricks (Alan Cumming), and a private club owner named Danny Huston (Floyd Hanson), Marlowe finds himself uncovering a mystery that dives into the seedy underbelly of 1930s Hollywood.

Or, at least, that’s what the film thinks it does. In execution, Marlowe is a bit too muddled in review to really function as a good mystery or a good noir. There are a few factors impacting this, but probably the biggest one is the film’s structure and unfortunate pacing. Scenes often cut away, jumping both in location and plot, leaving the viewer to piece together where they are and what is happening. Not holding the viewer’s hand in a twisty mystery is great, but director Neil Jordan doesn’t just let go of our hand — he walks away, speeds up, turns a corner, and won’t slow down. Characters, plot points, and even action sequences pop in and out like editing vomit. A true crime film will let you solve things along with the detective, but Marlowe fumbles this so badly that at one point near the end, a character narrates something that happened off-screen to explain the entire film’s plot.

The screenplay may also be part of the problem but in an oddly good way. Marlowe not only looks like those classic noir films of old, but it “reads” like one as well. The dialogue isn’t afraid to be fast, smart, complex, and witty. It’s as if someone found an old screenplay from the heyday of noir and made a movie. It is truly a breath of fresh air to watch a film whose writing is this whip-smart, though, at times, it can feel like it’s being a bit too clever. Still, Marlowe’s interrogations crackle with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it repertoire that is sorely missing from modern films. Sadly, as mentioned, the direction can’t live up to it, meaning the crackling screenplay turns into a wordy muddle instead of a clever, seedy mystery.

It’s also unclear just who this Philip Marlowe is as a character. It’s possible the book the film is based on tries to put a bit more humanity into the character and that’s what is going on in the film, but it makes him feel more soft-boiled than hard. Neeson’s performance never seems rough-edged. Though he handles the snappy dialogue well, he seems to be playing Marlowe with as much interest as he’s played his last 20 Taken spinoff “elder action man” roles. The film is evidently his 100th movie, and his performance makes one think he wishes he’d stopped around 80.

Putting a bit more effort into their roles is the supporting cast, especially since they get the juiciest bits to play with while Neeson is often stuck with exposition and questions. Kruger and Lange are fantastic playing off each other but never get enough time to do it, while both Cumming and Hanson chew up scenery like half of it isn’t in the shadows. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje also shows up in a supporting role that feels so forced it’s hard to think of him as anything more than the stereotypical token minority assistant, a nod to classic film that could have been left in the past.

Though visually and verbally impressive,  Marlowe is in review too much of a mess to deliver on its noir film ambitions. The refreshingly un-refreshing style of the film can’t save what are some simply poor directing and editing choices. It’s too bad because, with an engaged Neeson and better direction, this could have become quite the fun franchise. Instead, the film is much like any man who crosses a femme fatale: dead on arrival.

‘Marlowe’: Liam Neeson suitably world-weary as the tough private eye

Following in the gumshoe footsteps of bogart, mitchum and other greats, irish actor leads outstanding cast in convoluted but enjoyable film noir..

In 1939 Los Angeles, Philip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) searches for a missing man in “Marlowe.”

Open Road Films

Add Liam Neeson to the impressive list of leading men who have played Raymond Chandler’s laconic anti-hero gumshoe Philip Marlowe, a roster highlighted by Dick Powell in “Murder, My Sweet” (1944), Humphrey Bogart in “The Big Sleep” (1946), Robert Montgomery in “Lady in the Lake” (1947), James Garner in “Marlowe” (1969), Elliott Gould in “The Long Goodbye” and Robert Mitchum twice, in “Farewell My Lovely” (1975) and “The Big Sleep” (1978). What a group!

Nobody’s ever going to match Bogart’s iconic work opposite Lauren Bacall in Howard Hawks’ 1946 classic, but Neeson delivers a reliably powerful, world-weary, “I’m too old for this s---!” performance in Neil Jordan’s exquisitely photographed and sometimes convoluted but thoroughly enjoyable period piece.

This is the kind of self-aware film noir where we’d be disappointed if there WASN’T a moment where we see the reflection of a neon sign in a puddle, just before a car cuts through the shallow pool of water, making the image shimmy. (Spoiler alert: We’re not disappointed.)

“Marlowe” is based on “The Black-Eyed Blonde: A Philip Marlowe Novel” (2014), an authorized novel from the esteemed Irish writer John Banville, using the pseudonym Benjamin Black. Still, it’s Marlowe. The story is set in and around 1939 Bay City, Los Angeles (though production actually took place primarily in Barcelona and Dublin), with director Jordan (“The Crying Game,” “Michael Collins”) and cinematographer Xavi Giménez lensing the interiors in saturated, golden and brown hues. Even when the plot has us feeling as dizzy as Marlowe does after taking a blow to the back of the head, it’s a great-looking film.

Neeson’s Philip Marlowe is an Irish expat (we learn he saw combat in the First World War, with the Royal Irish Rifles regiment of the British Army), former LAPD cop and now private detective who is hired by one Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger), the requisite Mystery Blonde with Dubious Intentions, to find Clare’s missing lover, Nico Petersen (François Arnaud), a prop master at a film studio who was a notorious womanizer and perhaps involved in some shady and dangerous activities. It doesn’t take long for Marlowe to learn Nico was killed by a hit-and-run driver just outside an upper-crust country club run by the gentlemanly but clearly nefarious Floyd Hanson (Danny Huston), with the LAPD and coroner confirming it was indeed Nico turned into human road kill by an unknown assailant — but Clare insists she has spotted Nico in Mexico after he was supposedly killed, and that must be some other poor sap’s ashes in the morgue.

Diane Kruger plays the mysterious blonde who hires Marlowe.

Marlowe’s investigation plunges him ever-deeper into the seedy and salacious side of Los Angeles, as we meet a variety of colorful and perhaps not-to-be trusted characters, including Clare’s wealthy mother, Dorothy (Jessica Lange), who was once a great Hollywood star; a flamboyant and dangerous gangster named Lou Hendricks (Alan Cumming); Lou’s chauffeur and bodyguard Cedric (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and Nico’s sister, Lynn, (Daniela Melchior), a sex worker who finds her life in danger due to Nico’s shady dealings. (Marlowe also relies heavily on a pair of sympathetic coppers, played by Colm Meaney and Ian Hart, to keep him in the loop. The supporting players in this film are outstanding, down to the smaller roles.)

Huston and Neeson are particularly engrossing together, playing two men of a certain size and demeanor who stroll about wearing suits and hats, but have seen and done things one doesn’t discuss out loud in polite company. When Marlowe says it must have been quite the disturbing experience for Hanson to have seen Peterson’s crushed body in the road, Hanson says, “I’ve seen men in more disarray than that in which Mr. Petersen was discovered,” notes he’s a war veteran and says, “Once, after an artillery strike, I found a friend’s tooth in my whiskey glass. I drank the whiskey.”

“You’re a terrible man,” says Marlowe.

“He was dead, and I needed the whiskey,” comes the reply. That’s ridiculous, but kind of great. (The screenplay is from William Monahan, who won an Oscar for “The Departed.” Everyone involved in this film has credentials .)

Just about every woman Marlowe meets expresses an interest in him, but he keeps begging off, explaining (with very good reason) why this tryst or that assignation would be a really bad idea. Many of the MEN who meet Marlowe comment on how big he is — not that it stops a few of them from trying to take him on, and we know that’s a bad idea because even post-“Taken,” now 70-year-old Liam Neeson (who was in his late 60s when this was filmed) can crush your head like a grape. The central mystery often gets lost in the weeds and it feels like the story ends a few beats after its natural conclusion, but thanks to the high-end production values, the juicy script and the vigorous performances from that first-rate cast, it’s great to see another iteration of Marlowe on the case.

‘Marlowe’ Review: Liam Neeson's 100th Film Makes You Thirsty For More

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Watching any Liam Neeson -starring movie is rarely a bad experience. Even in the titles that feel repetitive – namely, those countless action flicks he’s starred in ever since Taken – his performances always find a way to pull you in and get you at least a little bit involved in the story. In his hundredth film Marlowe , this isn’t any different, even though by its very nature, the story doesn’t focus too much on the title character.

Set in 1930s Hollywood, Marlowe pays little homage to that era and noir cinema. The title character is a private investigator who is recruited by Clare Cavendish ( Diane Kruger ), an heiress who’s in search of her ex-lover Nico ( François Arnaud ). The only trouble is, he’s presumed dead and witnesses saw him die, but she says he's alive and well somewhere. It’s up to Marlowe to get to the bottom of this story and find out what truth is there in all versions of the story.

One of the best elements is Marlowe is that it fully understands the nostalgia that it’s evoking. At the same time, director Neil Jordan never lets this nostalgia take over: You get a glimpse of an old movie being filmed, but it’s never romanticized, and life in 1930s Los Angeles is depicted as pretty normal, even though it’s from the elite’s standpoint. The result is that you genuinely feel like you’re watching a Golden Era movie, which certainly works and looks a lot better on the big screen. And then there are the recurring themes of an investigative plot (Did Nico manage to fake his own death? Does Clare have ulterior motives?) which are always fun to watch and try to figure out.

One thing that may keep audiences at bay, though, is Marlowe’s involvement with the case. The detective is not really personally connected nor obsessed with it, which at times makes us feel the same general lack of connection. The case is intriguing and indeed makes us curious, but at the same time, it’s not the edge-of-your-seat mystery that makes you feel like you just have to know the answer to the riddle at all costs. And sometimes, that may keep the audience from connecting with the characters directly or indirectly involved in the mystery.

RELATED: Liam Neeson Talks ‘Marlowe,’ Playing the Hard-Boiled Private Detective, and ‘The Naked Gun’ Reboot

On the other hand, Marlowe has the luxury of managing to draw the audience in through its cast alone. Kruger, Alan Cumming , Danny Huston , and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje are always fun to watch, but there’s one particular pairing that greatly elevates the experience. Whenever you see Neeson and Jessica Lange interacting, you pretty much get the feel of being in the presence of Hollywood royalty doing their very best in every take, all the while making it seem effortless.

In one particular scene, Neeson and Lange are in a restaurant, and you get the feeling that the whole movie could just be these two talented actors talking to each other for two hours, and you’d absolutely buy it. Just seeing Lange interact with the environment around her and Neeson’s Marlowe trying to see through Lang’s character Dorothy provides all the fun you’d need during a screening, and the only problem is that we don’t get a lot of interactions between the two throughout the movie.

William Monahan ’s ( The Departed ) script makes a point of showcasing Neeson’s particular set of skills, and sometimes Marlowe gets into fights just so we won't forget that the Academy Award nominee can kick ass. It’s a shame the movie doesn’t make as much of an effort to showcase Marlowe’s wits, limiting the character’s most brilliant moments to scenes like him playing chess against himself and a maneuver with a dangerous drink you’d be hard-pressed to believe no one noticed his lack of sleight of hand (you'll know it when you see it).

Marlowe is a movie that seems okay with not giving its title character a whopping first impression. Luckily, Neeson’s performance is compelling enough to keep you interested, even though as the case unfolds you realize that it’s going in a pretty obvious direction. That’s why the movie greatly benefits from its cast, whose undisputable talent fire up the screen and make you feel like the trip to Golden Age Hollywood — which was beautifully recreated with a grade-A production and costume design — was worth your time.

Marlowe is playing in theaters now.

• Movie Reviews
• Liam Neeson

Marlowe (Ireland/USA, 2022)

I have never been a Raymond Chandler fan nor am I enamored with the pulp detective genre that was oh-so-popular during the early decades of the 20 th century. Consequently, my only exposure to Philip Marlowe (Chandler’s most popular character) has been through the movies and on TV. Over the years, he has been played by a number of well-known actors, including (but not limited to) George Sanders, Robert Montgomery, Elliot Gould, Powers Booth, Robert Mitchum, and (of course) Humphrey Bogart. In my review of The Big Sleep , I wrote the following: “Of all of these portrayals, Bogart's is easily the most memorable, and if you ask any movie-lover who the real cinematic Marlowe is, the answer will be immediate and unqualified.” Now Liam Neeson has joined this roster and, although his interpretation of the beleaguered detective falls far short of Bogart’s, it’s arguably as good as any of the others.

Marlowe is based on the 2014 novel “The Black-Eyed Blonde” by John Banville, an authorized post-Chandler Marlowe tale. Although Marlowe ’s dialogue doesn’t snap, crackle, and pop the way it does in many of the earlier works, the storyline has all the expected twists and red herrings. Director Neil Jordan, whose most notable works ( Mona Lisa , The Crying Game , Michael Collins ) are more than 20 years in the past, takes a director-for-hire position and turns in a workmanlike job. The film’s look, said to be inspired by Blade Runner , is garish and sumptuous but there’s a sense that the movie might have benefitted from a black-and-white aesthetic. The full-color approach clashes with the film noir tropes, creating an odd dissonance.

Marlowe has been kicking around for some 85 years (he first appeared in print in “The Big Sleep,” which was published in 1939), so it’s fair to wonder whether any new movie can fulfill the double mandate of remaining true to the clichés of the genre while providing something original and engaging. Marlowe does a considerably better job of the former than the latter. As a theatrical release, one suspects that this movie will be D.O.A., despite Neeson’s involvement. It may find better traction as a streaming option (assuming it’s picked up by a major service rather than being offered a la carte). The movie doesn’t exactly do Philip Marlowe a disservice but neither does it successfully re-invent the character for a new era and its attendant audience.

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