From the LA TImes, Friday, February 25, 2000 |
'Requiem': First Book, First Film, First-Class By KEVIN
THOMAS, Times Staff Writer
When Jason Freeland was a USC
film student, he heard James Ellroy on National Public Radio
speaking about his hard-boiled L.A. novels and how Hollywood
didn't understand his work. Freeland was intrigued, started
reading Ellroy and became determined to try to film his first
novel,
"Brown's Requiem."
That was eight years ago, but
Freeland's persistence paid off, and the result is an
uncommonly satisfying private-eye mystery that is at once
classic in form and deeply personal in feeling.
Written 20 years ago while
Ellroy was still working as a golf caddy and trying to get
sober, "Brown's Requiem" has fewer major characters than
"L.A. Confidential" and none of its period Hollywood glamour.
Although complex and not without humor, the novel is
unpretentious, and Freeland, in his feature writing and
directing debut, has stayed resolutely true to Ellroy in
spirit.
The story takes place in the
present yet betrays no sense that it has been updated.
Whereas "L.A. Confidential" lent itself to the stylization
that director Curtis Hanson so effectively brought to it,
"Brown's Requiem" benefits from Freeland's understated
approach.
Freeland is to be applauded for
avoiding the easy cliches of trendy neo-noir: shadowy
lighting for its own sake, a cynicism that strikes a callow
note, etc. Remarkably for a genre film, "Brown's Requiem"
actually seems to draw more from real life than from other
movies.
No small part of Freeland's
success lies in his on-the-money casting, starting with
Michael Rooker as Fritz Brown, a former LAPD cop who "drank
away" his career and is making a real effort to stay sober as
a repo man and private eye. Ever since Rooker made an
indelible impression in the title role of "Henry: Portrait of
a Serial Killer," he more often than not has played
supporting roles, often as the bad guy, but "Brown's Requiem"
gives him the chance to play a sympathetic, attractive
lead.
Rooker, who has a striking
gravelly voice, is good looking yet not conventionally
movie-star handsome. His strong, open face has a lived-in,
seen-it-all look and he has a quality of quiet masculinity
that allows him to be entirely believable when it comes time
for Brown to get tough. At the same time Rooker, who also
signed on as one of the film's associate producers, is adept
at evoking Brown's isolation and vulnerability.
One day a seedy caddy who calls
himself Fat Dog (William Sasso) hires Brown to shadow his
17-year-old sister, Jane (Selma Blair) with the object of
ultimately separating her from a Beverly Hills tycoon (Harold
Gould) with whom she has been living in a lavish
estate.
The tycoon is a decidedly shady
type, quite apart from living with a girl young enough to be
his granddaughter, and Brown is understandably galvanized
when, early on, he discovers that the tycoon is in an
underworld partnership with the head of LAPD internal affairs
(the late Brion James), a ruthless, corrupt cop who was the
very man who kicked Brown off the force. Brown savors the
possibility of revenge.
In time-honored fashion, Brown
plunges himself into what proves to be a wide-ranging web of
underworld activity and deceit involving a gallery of lowlife
types, the occasional innocent and various unexpected
connections. What gives the familiar private-eye odyssey its
edge are Brown's character and personality. Brown may have
Philip Marlowe's intelligence, code of honor and
determination, but his sobriety is a moment-to-moment matter.
Plus there is the real possibility that his entire quest may
be an exercise in futility, a self-destructive one at
that.
Freeland's low-key yet taut
approach pays off in allowing the film to build power
unobtrusively, with solid storytelling and an array of
spot-on performances by a raft of first-rate actors that
includes Kevin Corrigan, Brad Dourif, Valerie Perrine and
Barry Newman. Seo Mutarevic's camera work gracefully captures
life in everyday L.A. without pointless frills, and Cynthia
Millar's score strikes an elegiac note, appropriate to the
film's downbeat, though not depressing, tone. It has a
welcome formality atypical for genre pictures. Best of all,
"Brown's Requiem" has a mature resonance unusual for a first
film.
* Unrated. Times guidelines:
language, heavy drinking and drugs, some violence, complex
adult themes.
'Brown's Requiem'
Michael Rooker: Fritz
Burns
Selma Blair: Jane
Valerie Perrine: Marguerita
Hansen
Harold Gould: Solly K
William Sasso: Fat Dog
An Avalanche Releasing
presentation in association with J&T Productions and
Savvy Lad Inc. Writer-director Jason Freeland. Based on the
novel by James Ellroy. Producers Tim Youd, David Scott Rubin.
Executive producers John McDonnell III, Marc Ezralow.
Cinematographer Seo Mutarevic. Editor Toby Yates. Music
Cynthia Millar. Costumes Mimi Melgeard. Production designer
Marc Rizzo. Art director Michael V. Islas. Set decorator
Nicholas Ralbovsky. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Exclusively at the AMC Media
Center 8, 3rd Street at Magnolia Boulevard, Burbank, (818)
883-2AMC, and Los Feliz 3, 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood,
(323) 664-2100.
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