A wonderfully entertaining, old-fashioned noir

Rating: 9/10 (2 July 2002)

I had to watch this film for my Film Noir class, and I'm glad I did. I've seen the movie before, but I didn't remember much about it. And I wasn't really in any attentive mood either. Well, this time I was in an attentive mood and the plot fascinated me. It's filled with all sorts of great twists and turns, reminiscent of the old film noirs. If the movie weren't in color and didn't contain bloody violence or 4-letter words, it would be just like an old noir film. "LA Confidential" pays tribute the great genre, and dazzles us with beautiful set decoration and costumes. And to top it off, magnificent acting. I heard about the studios being adamant (and it's mentioned in the "Trivia" section too) about casting two Australian actors as leads. After all, this is an all-American detective story. But Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce are so convincing and so great that you forget about that. They hide their Australian accents remarkably, and they play out their roles just as magnificent as any American actor could. And this is considering, the two actors were relative unknowns at the time. So it put a smile on my face, knowing that they were still up-and-coming actors (in the states, at least) and hit it big with this one shot at stardom. Crowe went on to more successful films like "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Insider." And Pearce went onto more successful films like "Memento" and "Rules of Engagement." Kevin Spacey was also a relative unknown at the time--though not as much as Crowe or Pearce--and gives a cool performance as the suave Jack Vincennes. I wouldn't put this performance up there with "Swimming with Sharks" or "American Beauty," but this is also considering he didn't have much screen time. James Cromwell as perfectly slimy as Captain Dudley Smith. And Danny DeVito steals a few scenes as Sid Hudgens, the founder of Hush-Hush magazine. I wouldn't say Kim Basinger deserved an Oscar for her performance as Lynn Bracken, the Veronica Lake look-alike hooker, but she was good. Ironically, she's the only one in the cast who received an Oscar. She's sexy and convincing, but she doesn't possess the magic of the classic femme fatales.
I can go on and on and on about how I love this movie. This is one of those movies that I love so much that it makes me want to hug the screen. I'm definitely buying the DVD. It's a bloody, convoluted detective story, yet at the same time very entertaining and makes me feel good--partially from hearing the beautiful 50's soundtrack. I can tell Curtis Hanson put his heart and soul into this work.
My score: 9 (out of 10)