The Best of the Nineties.

Rating: 10/10 (7 July 2002)

There was never a greater injustice at an awards ceremony than when James Cameron's bloated, over-egged Iceberg-Opera beat this taut, stylish and gripping thriller to Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars. Curtis Hanson's film is everything that film can achieve and everything that Titanic is not.
The script is tremendously well-written, based on James Ellroy's gargantuan, labyrinthine novel. Brian Helgeland and Curtis Hanson have done a great job in making this a film first and foremost rather than being a mere adaptation of a great book. The script manages to focus on both characters and plot, meaning that neither is sacrificed for the sake of the other, a rare treat indeed these days.
The casting director should take a major pat on the back as well. To have two of the three lead roles filled by unknowns was tremendously brave as well as the right decision, it is important that the characters of Ed Exley and Bud White are carrying no intertextual baggage as far as the audience are concerned. Both Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe are now major stars and that can largely be put down to their masterful performances here, Kevin Spacey is as good as we would expect him to be, while great support comes from James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Danny Devito, Ron Rifkin and Oscar-Winner Kim Basinger.
When the performances and the script are so good, sometimes the direction can be overshadowed somewhat, not here though. Curtis Hanson shows a master's touch allowing the film to be funny, touching, thrilling and downright shocking at the right time. The period feel is immaculate too, and the overall look of the film crucial to its plot and resolution. Not merely was it robbed by Titanic as the best film of 1998, it is also the best film of the whole decade.