Product: Singapore Sling (1990)
Rating: 4.0
Funny, suspenseful, and surprisingly moving
SINGAPORE SLING is one of those films that you are either going to love or hate. I, for one, loved it. I'm a huge fan of film noir, so this film's style was right up my alley to begin with. However, there's a lot more to appreciate than just style. For starters, each of the characters have their own interesting and memorable little quirks and they show right away. The way in which the characters are developed is interesting in itself. They each take turns, basically, narrating the film, yet they each do it in very different ways. This only adds more clarity to these characters and allowed me to see the situation of the film from a very open perspective. As a result, the audience may feel like they are forced to be openminded about the shocking acts that they see in the film. However, I appreciated what the filmmaker was doing. Normally this kind of story needs to be approached in a straightforward way in order for the viewer to be able to take it seriously, but the film works on it's own twisted logic and manages to develop and commingle with it's own style so that it doesn't have to be taken seriously. Obviously, the people who do take the film seriously will be in for one hell of an emotional roller coaster ride. Otherwise, the film just kind of develops it's own world and then allows it's characters and the situations to unfold in their own twisted ways. I liked this approach to the material. It's the same kind of approach that the film FIGHT CLUB uses, only here we get some semi-strict themes to contend with. The film goes on a bit too long and begins to lose steam at the end, but in general the film is a classic and I can easily see it becoming a cult classic if it finds it's right audience.