Paramount
Classics Home Video | Review by Dan Taylor
There's
an awful lot of plot at work in Daniel Pyne's
WHERE'S MARLOWE?, a hard-boiled detective
tale complete with missing partners, philandering
clients with philandering wives, skeptical
cops and all the other genre chestnuts.
Unfortunately, the flick's saddled with
a post-film school mockumentary framework
that weighs it down with a tedious movie-within-a-movie.
Despite all this overwhelming
sameness and "too muchness," WHERE'S
MARLOWE? is worth seeing thanks to Miguel Ferrer.
We first became huge fans
of MF during ROBO COP where he played the
unctuous Bob Morton. But it wasn't until
DEEPSTAR
SIX that he vaulted to the front of
our collective psyche as a "guy
to watch." Then again, one scene with
a shark-pulverizing stick will do that for
you. Over the next few years Ferrer kept
turning up so frequently that you couldn't
swing a dead cat without hitting George
Clooney's cousin: TWIN PEAKS (forensics
expert Albert Rosenfield), BROKEN BADGES
(Beau Jack Bowman), POINT OF NO RETURN (Kaufman),
the highly-underrated THE HARVEST, the mini-series
of THE STAND (as evil Lloyd Henreid), and
the short-lived, but highly-acclaimed sitcom
LATELINE.
WHERE'S MARLOWE? does have
a clever concept at the center of its straight-to-video
heart, and isn't that all we ask these days?
Too bad, Pyne and co-writer John Mankiewicz
can't push the envelope of the idea further
than their rather maddeningly connect-the-dots
screenplay.
When two documentary filmmakers
(John Livingston and Mos Def) start to make
a film about LA private detective Joe Boone
(Ferrer), you figure it'll be an intriguing
look at the seamy side of detective work
that's not portrayed in tv and movies. But
when Ferrer's detective partner (and best
buddy) disappears after being dropped off
at the Mexican border... hey, wait a minute.
Who knew he had a partner? Hell, who knew
they were best friends, since you never
sense any friendship or chemistry between
Boone and Murphy (John Slattery). The flick
is so disjointed and confusing that you
have trouble figuring who the peripheral
characters are and you never get a sense
that you should care about them.
As I said, Murphy disappears
while they're investigating a case featuring
a sleazy local businessman (Clayton Rohner
of the second season of MURDER ONE), his
secretary, his wife, and there might even
be a mistress involved. Whatever. When I'm
having trouble following the flick on a
Wednesday afternoon, you now there's something
wrong.
By the end of the flick, the
filmmakers are acting as Boone's surrogate
partners, Boone's behind the camera, Murphy's
dead, the wife is confessing (I'm not really
spoiling anything) and there's even a subplot
about a sleazeball teacher that has hired
Boone & Murphy to find his "daughter."
I'm not sure why I was expecting
a whole lot from guys that worked on MIAMI
VICE, THE HARD WAY, DOC HOLLYWOOD, WHITE
SANDS and THE FIRM. However, the finer points
of their pedigree involve the underrated
Jeff Fahey tv series THE MARSHAL and the
creepy thriller PACIFIC HEIGHTS.
It's not hard to believe that
WM? was originally intended as the pilot
for a weekly-tv series, shot on 16mm from
the filmmakers' POV and then expanded after
the tape generated lots of La-La Land word
of mouth. Much of the film has a tacked-on
feel that distracts from the good ideas
lingering at its core.
For you fellow Ferrer fans,
check the flick out. Other than that, it's
not worth the mental effort.
