Film Noir Recycled

I love films that can channel a certain nostalgia. I like when a writer or director can breath some new life into a genre that people have grown to love but maybe has fallen off the radar. Film Noir is one of those genres that can never be recreated as it was in its hey day with films like The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep so instead you have to try and put a modern spin on it and that is what Shane Black tries to do with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005).

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang stars the always entertaining Robert Downey Jr. as a man who stumbles upon an acting opportunity and with that follows around a gay private detective played by Val Kilmer. Yes, there are funny moments, yes there are funny lines, Downey Jr. is great and Kilmer is very good, but this film falls far short of being entertaining and or enjoyable. If you are going to do a modern day telling with all the elements of a film noir then you really need to sell them as realistic within that world. Some very successful examples are The Big Lebowski and even more recently Brick. Instead Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang tries to be to much, it plays to hard on coincidence, and Tarantinian moments that don't ring true at all. The film is confusing and it never makes an attempt to make any of the characters likable or interesting enough for the audience to be engaged.

Shane Black is a good writer and he really does his research but tries to fit to much into this story. He probably would have been better served with someone else as a director, someone who could rein in the important elements of the film and keep it from being one big self referential attempt at a modern noir. Most of the time I felt like the film was just screaming at me: "look what I am doing, aren't I clever".

If it wasn't for the performances of Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer I would probably have hated this film. I say skip it and rent Brick instead.

**