At the film's opening, our hero, Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), discovers his former girlfriend Emily (Emilie de Ravin) murdered at the mouth of a mysterious-looking dark tunnel. We then flash back to three days earlier, when Emily reached out to Brendan for help. The call is cryptic. It seems she has "screwed up real bad," but before we learn how, the call is interrupted. A suspicious-looking black car speeds past the phone booth in which Brendan took the call from Emily, and someone flicks a cigarette butt out the window at him. Presumably, Emily is in the car, about to be killed. So, Brendan sets out to learn what happened to Emily. Of course, he gets much more than he bargained for; it turns out she had gotten involved in the school's drug ring and was murdered over a brick (hey, that's the title!) of heroin.
I found the noir style a bit jarring at first. Maybe it was hearing that language in a modern setting. Maybe it was because the characters are all high school students. I think the combination of those two things made it feel a little like a bunch of kids were playing at being Bogart and Bacall. Maybe it was because I don't think I've ever seen a noir film that was that bright (lots of scenes that happened outdoors at midday). Or maybe it was a little bit of all three. After a few minutes, though, I got over it and thought it was good fun. It has all the characters you would expect to see in a crime noir film: the gumshoe, the informer, the kingpin, the muscle, the police captain, and the tough dame. It also has the complex plot line of a classic noir thriller, with Brendan chasing after leads that come to some unexpected conclusions. And, if you missed anything along the way, it's all wrapped up at the end for you in a scene in which Brendan reveals all that he has learned throughout his investigation.
Overall, a pretty good time. Up next, the first movie to come from the dvd queue, A Good Year.
I have a bad feeling about this.
No comments:
Post a Comment