Labyrinthine tale that showcased stars-in-the-making

Rating: 10/10 (30 March 2008)

1997 was a year of great movies that introduced some major Hollywood newcomers and talent. There was Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (TITANIC), Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore (BOOGIE NIGHTS), Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (GOOD WILL HUNTING), and then there's L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, which may perhaps have boasted the best, up and coming talent of all b/c its stars Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce, collectively went on to do much bigger things, although the stars in those other films didn't do too badly either. Spacey had just won Supporting Oscar for THE USUAL SUSPECTS, but he would go on to win the big one (Best Actor for American BEAUTY). Crowe went on to get 3 consecutive Best Actor noms for THE INSIDER, GLADIATOR (won), and A BEAUTIFUL MIND. Pearce went on to star in the highly acclaimed film MEMENTO. Of course the biggest instant winner from L.A. CONFIDENTIAL itself was Kim Basinger, who won Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in this film.
L.A. CONFIDENTIAL is an enthralling, elaborate, complex tale about 3 cops in circa 1953 Los Angeles. Jack Vincennes (Spacey), Bud White (Crowe), and Ed Exley (Pearce) are embroiled in 'separate' cases which all somehow tie in together with discoveries of big time collusion and corruption at the end of the rainbow. The 3 cops couldn't be more different from each other. Vincennes is a 'soft' cop who uses it as a cover for his real interest in becoming a big Hollywood star (he is the cop adviser for a 1950s TV show about cops). White is a hardcore, gritty, tough-as-nails 'dirty' cop who is willing to bend the rules to take down criminals. Exley is a clean-cut, idealistic rookie who wants to do everything above board and also despises cops like White, who he sees as inferior to him. And White hates Exley b/c he got his partner Dick Stensland fired from the force for his major part in an altercation with prisoners at the jailhouse early in the film.
Early in the film, there is a brutal mass murder at a city diner and one of the victims is Stensland (who we find out later is much dirtier than White ever was). Separately, White and Exley investigate the crime. White's lead is the fact that one of the diner victims was a young girl that he had seen a few nights before when he and Stensland were out on patrol; the girl was in a car with Pierce Patchett (a big Hollywood flesh king played by David Stathairn) and Lynn Bracken (one of Patchett's ladies of the evening played by the aforementioned Basinger, who is incredibly gorgeous and sexy here, but with a real maturity and edge, perhaps b/c she is actually somewhat older in real life than they made her appear in this film). White goes to see Bracken, supposedly just for the case, but there was immediate attraction between the 2 when they first met and it carries over to this second purposeful meeting at her home. The exchange between Crowe and Basinger in this scene is one of the best in the film.
Exley works with Vincennes as his partner on the case. Even though they don't particularly like each other, Exley and Vincennes both have similar goals in solving the case: Exley for career advancement and Vincennes for more media attention. Initially, 3 young black men are arrested and pegged for the crime, but the 3 cops all know better than that, and so Exley and White, again separately, investigate further; later Exley convinces Vincennes to help him b/c it may tie in w/ another case that he is working on of a murdered young naive Hollywood wannabe actor that he met through his sleazy newspaper ally Sid Hudgens (played by Danny DeVito in winning, lighthearted performance).
Needless to say, the film gains in complexity, drama, and suspense as it moves along and eventually the 2 real main characters (Exley and White) converge to tie everything together and then work together to bring down the real bad guys. The beauty of these characters is in the fact that nothing is cut and dried about them. They both have major flaws in them that prevent them from being complete cops, so they need to learn from each other to become better cops. When they get together, they actually complement each other the way that 2 'partners' should and in the process learn that not all people are what they really seem like on the surface.
The irony of the film is that even though the plot is remarkably complex, it is not that hard to follow once everything is tied together. Of course the acting is top-notch. Crowe, Pearce, and Spacey are all terrific and imbibe their characters with energy, depth, and complexity. It's easy to see how all 3 went on to great things. Special mention should also go to the great James Cromwell, who plays the cops' police commander; he always gives a reliable performance and is important to the plot as well.
LA CONFIDENTIAL was directed by Curtis Hanson, who did another favorite film of mine BAD INFLUENCE much earlier than this one and you can see from both films that he has an eye for style and glamour which shines through in this film. The film nails down the 50s look, sets, and props, but is so rich in character detail and plot that you look past the surface, so that LA CONFIDENTIAL is not just some period piece film. It is a major Hollywood production done to technical perfection with some serious heart.