"Marlowe" looks the part but it’s as stale as a pack of Lucky Strikes

Marlowe (2023)

“Marlowe” has all the trappings of a classic film noir. Even Philip Marlowe, the private dick himself. Raymond Chandler’s revered character has already been played by numerous greats, including Humphrey Bogart in 1946’s “The Big Sleep.” Now, it’s Liam Neeson’s turn to play the gumshoe as an Irish ex-pat. With Neil Jordan directing a first-rate ensemble in a hard-boiled noir, “Marlowe” should be, at the very least, a fun genre exercise. Instead, Jordan lets the clichés play out in earnest, so the result is little more than an empty, mechanical pastiche. Surprise, surprise, there’s even a blonde femme fatale trading some repartee between drags of a cigarette.

Adapted by Jordan and co-writer William Monahan (2006’s “The Departed”) not from one of Chandler’s pulpy stories but from Irish novelist John Banville’s 2014 book “The Black-Eyed Blonde,” the film has Neeson putting on his best world-weary face as Marlowe. It’s 1939 in Bay City, Los Angeles, and the private detective finds himself with an interesting new case. A blonde femme fatale, Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger), employs Marlowe to find her missing lover, Nico Petersen (François Arnaud), who works as a prop master in the picture industry. Or, was Nico declared dead after being run over like a pumpkin outside of an exclusive club run by the seedy Floyd Hanson (Danny Huston)? Or, did Clare just recently spot Nico in Tijuana? As Marlowe gets further into his investigation, he gets himself deeper and deeper into this world of shady characters, including Dorothy (Jessica Lange), Claire’s faded Hollywood starlet of a mother with “more money than the Queen of Sheba,” and a flamboyant gangster (Alan Cumming) who makes a pun about a “back entrance.” Who’s double-crossing who, and where does Nico fit into all of this?

Director Jordan does not skimp on production value with period-appropriate everything, and there is some superficial pleasure in watching this talented cast smoke and play dress-up like it’s 1939. The mystery itself is intriguing at first before becoming a convoluted series of interrogation scenes. That should be part of the fun, allegedly, but there’s little "there" there. Part of the problem is the overall confusion with tone. Sure, it was probably an actor’s field day to tear into some overripe noir dialogue, but was this supposed to be a straight film noir or parody? How else to explain the scene where Marlowe tails someone walking into a house and somehow being able to hear their conversation loud and clear, until they close the blinds? Even with the occasional anachronism where Marlowe takes out some goons like any Liam Neeson character with a particular set of skills does, an uncanny feeling of déjà vu casts a pall on the film. “Marlowe” certainly looks the part with all of the ingredients prepped and ready to go, but it feels as stale as a pack of Lucky Strikes.

Grade: C

Open Road Films is releasing “Marlowe” (110 min.) in theaters on February 15, 2023.