Imagine Chinatown (1974) if it were about 30% less good and utterly forgettable, and that’s basically what Marlowe (2022) is. Starring Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, and Diane Kruger, there’s really no good reason why this movie shouldn’t be amazing, but here we are. This movie is so meh, it didn’t occur to me until about 20 minutes into an accidental re-watch that the reason everything seemed so oddly familiar was because I had, in fact, watched it already and then promptly forgotten it. I even happened to have completely forgotten that Alan Cumming is in it until I was just now going through the cast list.
I love hard-boiled detective fiction in pretty much any format, so it’s not like I don’t enjoy the genre and can’t appreciate the nuance of Raymond Chandler’s wise-cracking private eye. I mean, The Big Sleep (1946) starring Humphrey Bogart as Phillip Marlowe is one of my favorite detective flicks ever (and it’s a damn shame I can’t use it for this blog because it’s set contemporaneously to when it was filmed, otherwise I’d be all over it). And Liam Neeson seemed in theory to be a great fit to play Marlowe, but sadly he just never gelled for me. Jessica Lange and Diane Kruger were both fantastic, but their roles were typical for the genre and not exactly dimensional.
So what about the costumes? Betsy Heimann’s designs are really good. Heimann’s career has been mainly focused on designs for films set post-1970, and she’s perhaps best known for her work on two massive cult hits that bookended last decade of the 20th century, Pulp Fiction (1992) and Almost Famous (2000). She also designed the iconic costumes for The Pee-Wee Herman Show (1981) which were groundbreaking for their offbeat and whimsical interpretation of the 1950s. She pulled off a similar vibe for Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1988). So, having established that she has chops, how’d she do with the 1930s?
Do you remember watching Marlowe (2022)? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Find this frock flick at:
Might I respectfully suggest Mr Robert Mitchum’s effort (Filmed in the 1970s, if memory serves) if you’re looking for a Marlowe movie made a decade or so after the era in which it is set?
I agree the film was not very memorable, even though I am a fan of Mr. Neeson. The costumes were solid except I did not like the tailored straw hat with that green dress. The dress is great, but it deserves a cocktail dark green hat with maybe a pink feather as an accent. Hated it then and still hate it now.
This had zero atmosphere!
I haven’t seen this, but I really liked the Monsieur Spade mini-series with Clive Owen if you want something similar.