Word: exley
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...Confidential," a sumptuous bit of film noir set in 1950's Los Angeles. The movie features a cast of crime lords, dope dealers, tabloid photographers, wife-beaters, crooked cops, movie stars, and prostitutes. Navigating this menagerie of colorful filth are three police detectives, Bud White, Jack Vincennes, and Ed Exley. As we watch them attempt to solve a mysterious mass murder, we unexpectedly gain insight into the recent tragedy in Brooklyn...
...movie, you suddenly realize that people are creeping from one closed space to the next, from the Christmastime police beatings in prison cells onward. Into such a world populated by officers who would just as soon as bury a broken bottle in your neck as arrest you, Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) enters, a fresh-scrubbed "golden boy" with an absolute commitment to good. Exley is a little uncomfortable with the corner-cutting approach of the police chief Dudley Smith (James Cromwell), who dispenses tips on life with a thin smile that promises something violently wrong is happening somewhere. Smith would...
...engrossing enough to watch this twoheaded beast of a police force at work, which is what Hanson lets us do for a bit, before the appropriately twisty plot really gets under way. The story itself is impeccably paced, a well-orchestrated series of cover-ups and discoveries, as Exley skillfully and stubbornly cuts his way through the many layers of the blue shield and those who profit by it (like a man who runs a service of call girls cut to resemble movie starlets). Surprises and not so teensy-weensy ethical decisions are sprinkled throughout as we wonder whether Exley...
...what separates the movie from any other white-knight special is the palpable, big-screen reality of the characters: that is, while we know they're all blown up or simplified as necessary, we still can't wait to watch what happens when the upright Exley locks horns with Smith or goes to talk with prettyboy Vincennes whom we've up to then only known from more public appearances. People make mistakes or people shock us with coldly inhuman decisions, but things never subside into a predictable formula...
...hyped, dirty-real crime writing (some chapters consist of fictional headlines and news clippings) into a solid flick even a little sleeker than the original. Where the gritty could have turned grating, the dark places of "L.A. Confidential" hold up.Photo courtesy of Regency EntertainmentQUITE THE MORAL GUY: Ed Exley (GUY PEARCE) takes his search for crime off the street and into his own department...