Stoner detective

INHERENT VICE

Directors: Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay: Jordan Roberts, Daniel Gerson, Robert L. Baird

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin

Rating: 4/5

Paul Thomas Anderson continues his quest to make one polarising film after another. His films are designed to challenge, frustrate and question, and even the simplest sounding plot can have the potential to be an overbearing, incomprehensible chore in the hands of Anderson. But there is a certain level of intrigue and fun to be had in trying to follow and keep up with everything that is going on in this over-crowded crime drama that echoes the great Hollywood neo-noirs.

Even from the get-go Inherent Vice has a different feel to it. The sound and cinematography both feel outdated, surely a deliberate move to add that extra touch of an old-school feel to the film. We start with a warning and a cry for help. Shasta (Katherine Waterston) visits her ex-boyfriend, private investigator Larry ‘Doc’ Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), and informs him of a plot to have wealthy real estate developer Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts), her current boyfriend, institutionalised by his wife Sloane Wolfmann (Serena Scott Thomas) and her lover whose identity is not known. Shasta then disappears, and so the weed-smoking hippie Doc decides to take a closer look. He also receives an enquiry from Tariq (Michael K. Williams), who requests one of Mickey Wolfmann’s bodyguards to be tracked down for an unsettled financial issue. But that is not all. Hope Harlingen (Jena Malone) is searching for her missing husband Coy (Owen Wilson), a saxophone player who mysteriously disappeared. Somehow these cases are all interlinked.

Having seen the film, it is still not 100% clear as to how this is the case. But as more supporting characters drift in and out of the film’s narrative, the audience gets to see that there is an overlying big story that somehow connects everything and everyone.

Doc’s investigation leads to all sorts of weird and wonderful places and also to confusing clues that go with them – the DA’s office where his lover Penny Kimball (Reese Witherspoon) gives some sound advice, a brothel, a mysterious boat, a drug trafficking plot, and a dentist’s office (huh?) all feature in his search for the truth. It soon becomes clear that it is not just about discovering who is behind the crime that matters, but the why as well.

There are some quality performances to feast your eyes on. Phoenix gives the role his all, as the mildly eccentric, but entirely capable PI hopped up on a never-ending supply of cannabis among other recreational drugs, and the tough, macho Josh Brolin rocks up in the role of LAPD Detective Christian ‘Bigfoot’ Bjornsen to constantly lock horns with Doc, in a performance to be remembered. Martin Short also deserves praise for his incredibly brief but hysterical turn as a highly disturbing dentist who preys on the young, helpless patients he is referred.

Anderson is in no rush to get anywhere with solving the mystery. He takes his time to chill out every now and again and have a laugh with his cast of quirky actors, and some brutally honest third-person narration. It is a film that will often test your patience, but it does not promise high rewards either. So you be the judge. Love it or hate it, this is Anderson doing what he does best.