quality detective story in an artificial Hollywood

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2005)

SPOILERS Los Angeles, city of angels, city of dreams. Full of the rich, the poor and people who dream of making it big. As true today as it was in the 1950s. Set in the days of a young and glamorous Hollywood, "LA Confidential" brilliantly tells the story of three LA Detectives who keep the piece in their own unique ways.
Detective Lieutenant Edmund Exley (Guy Pearce) has dreams of justice. Unwilling to stretch the rules, he alienates himself constantly. In comparison muscle 'Bud' White (Russell Crowe) and show-business involved Sergeant Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) are respected officers. After a mass murder kills White's former partner however, these three men will need to team up to clear the deceit and corruption from Hollywood, politics, and even their own force.
Led by the always brilliant Spacey, this three pronged acting class is what any film's director would die for. With outstanding performances by Spacey, Pearce and Crowe, "LA Confidential" is hardly short of pulling power. The irony perhaps then is that whilst it is led by these three men, it is an amazing turn by Kim Basinger as a celebrity lookalike prostitute, that won the Academy Award.
As well as Basinger's superb turn, "LA Confidential" also deservedly won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Based on the book by James Ellroy, screenwriters Helgeland and Curtis Hanson (also the award nominated director) do a great job converting the book into a Hollywood story.
With cinematography beautifully reflecting the world of 1950s Hollywood, "LA Confidential" makes you live and breath the dark side of the American dream. Actors forced into negative actions with the slim hope of landing a role, actresses being physically altered and forced into the sex trade, 1950s Hollywood is shown as being corrupt and decaying. At the same time, with limited score and well used sound, this portrayal is aided by being shown as plain and brutal. To live in 1950s Hollywood was not as wonderful as so many imagine.
Led by an outstanding cast and some beautiful imagery, "LA Confidential" is a brilliant adaptation of a great book. Containing many memorable performances, it springs alive from the start and doesn't stop until it's explosive conclusion. It is amusing that such an ugly place and such ugly people can be made and shown so beautifully.