How detective movies should be made

Rating: 9/10 (12 June 2007)

First of all, I wasn't expecting so much about this movie. It had a pretty high rating at IMDb and it's praised all over the place, but I just wasn't so interested of it. Well, it turned out to be an excellent movie. The movie tells a story happening in Los Angeles in the 1950's and it tells about a corruption occurring all over the police force and a committed murder, which three different polices start to investigate in their own unique ways. Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, smart and the one obeying the law. Bud White, a rough man ready to break the law to seek justice. Then there's Jack Vincennes, a celebrity detective being the one who does the job for publicity and press photos, but still managing something with his smart, yet somewhat crooked ways.
There are two things about this movie which make it so magnificent; The storyline and the cast. The storyline is filled with excitement and it keeps on going all the way through. After the first hour the movie kind of stops a little bit and it seems like it starts to stumble, or that's at least what you think. There are these scenes which seem like irrelevant, but they eventually get important for the whole plot in a genius way. This movie is a perfect example of how to make a real crime/detective movie, there's the crime in the beginning and after that there's just this fantastic progression of the whole investigation from the very beginning till the very end, detectives finding interesting and also very surprising clues during the progress. Then there's the amazing cast; Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito.. Honestly, can you think of any better? Great indeed.
This leads up myself to the acting the movie has to offer. The role performances are all in all fantastic. Ed Exley is played by Guy Pearce and I really haven't seen Pearce in a role like Exley before, but I am happy to say that he is great in it. Then there's the always superb Russell Crowe playing Bud White, the real bad ass cop. If someone can play a bad ass and look so furious it's Crowe without a doubt. He's just so frightening. Finally there is Kevin Spacey as Jack Vincennes and as I've watched more than a few Spacey movies recently I'm starting to like him more and more and he is starting to be one of my favourite actors. In this movie he still is as excellent as you can pretty much expect from him. Pearce, Crowe and Spacey shine with astonishing role performances and they are the best thing the cast has to offer. I'm not underestimating the rest of the cast at all though, as there is the fierce James Cromwell, the beautiful Kim Basinger, the somewhat charismatic and cool David Stathairn and then there's the tiny but incredible Danny DeVito, who I haven't really seen in a more fitting role and he does some damn fine job in it too. Cromwell is enjoyable as usual, Basinger does what she does best and Strathairn is the coolness itself, though in my opinion he was better in "Good Night, and Good Luck." Still a great achievement though.
"L.A. Confidential" offers you a great movie experience. It sets mark on how detective movies should be made and how the whole crime investigation process should be progressing. It's exciting and it's interesting, doing that all the way through. It includes fantastic role performances and brilliant characters which all in their vivid personalities will most certainly not disappoint the viewer. It doesn't get messy in any part so the viewer won't be missing anything and won't get lost, so the film is also easy for your eyes. Directed by Curtis Hanson who captures the real essence of 1950's through images and music and based on the novel by James Ellroy which is translated to a magnificent screenplay in the hands of Brian Helgeland and the director Hanson himself, it just doesn't go wrong. I'm recommending this movie to everyone; The pleasure was all mine when watching it and I hope it will be yours as well.