Evocative and thrilling, this is a cop movie with real class - 89%

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2005)

For years, I was brought up to believe that the books were always better than the movies. And for a while, it made sense. I've read books like "Jurassic Park", "The Lord Of The Rings" (which I'm currently making my way through) and even the "Star Wars" novels are exciting, if a little basic, books. So when I spotted the Elmore Leonard's original on sale, I purchased a copy almost wholly on the reputation of the film. Big mistake - the language and prose ran all over the place and I just couldn't get into it at all. It still lays around, unfinished and probably always will now that I have the movie on DVD. And where words fail, pictures and sounds combine to tell the blistering story of corruption and determination in LA's police department.
Set in the golden age of the early Fifties in Hollywood, "L.A. Confidential" introduces us to three very different cops with very different methods. Wonderkid Ed Exley (Guy Pierce) is the newly-assigned rookie, holding to the ideals of justice for all and playing the game by the rules. At the other end of the spectrum is 'Bud' White (Russell Crowe) who is little more than a suited thug with a badge and the support of his superior, Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell). Somewhere in the middle is Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey), technical adviser to hit TV show "Badge Of Honor" and reliant on investigative reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito) to tell him what's going down in Hollywood, so he can turn up and arrest the suspects for the cameras with a smile on his face. Between them, they must investigate the apparent robbery of the Nite Owl café in which a former cop was slain.
Despite the complex story and multiple protagonists, "L.A. Confidential" remains a captivating film which never lets go of your attention. The film is a wonderful recreation of a typical noir setting, bright and colourful on the surface but rotten to its corrupted core. Indeed, it seems like Exley is the last good man alive as the case gradually grows to encompass political corruption, seedy dirt digging and prostitution rackets - which brings us to the Oscar winning performance from Kim Basinger as high-class hooker Lynn Bracken. Considering that she has rarely been given an acting role as opposed to simply looking good on screen, Basinger is stunningly good as she raises her game to new heights and holds her own alongside the respected ensemble cast. But she is not alone - Crowe, DeVito and Cromwell are all superb and even former "Neighbours" star Pierce is exception as the increasingly desperate cop trying to hold onto his morals when everyone else threw theirs away long ago. The story twists and turns throughout and the ending was one I didn't see coming, which makes so much difference when you consider how many cop films end exactly as you predicted.
There is no doubt at all that this film is special. From the cracking soundtrack to the authentic dialogue, evocative costumes to the picture-perfect view of a Hollywood that Raymond Chandler himself would be proud of. "L.A. Confidential" does everything right though, for me personally, I would like to have seen a new series of films in this style with Philip Marlowe (Chandler's private detective and star of many books) because that would quite possibly be one of my favourite films of all time. However, it doesn't feel right to criticise this film because it deserves all the praise I can offer. Compulsive, tense and gripping - everything a good cop movie should be. "L.A. Confidential" is a movie of timeless quality and a quantum leap ahead of the last film I watched last night on Channel 4 (the bloody dreadful "Guest House Paradiso").