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Brown's Requiem

1998, Movie, 97 mins

Brown's Requiem: Review

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Although crime novelist James Ellroy's reputation got a boost from the brilliant film adaptation of his L.A. Confidential , this neo-noir exercise won't do much to burnish it. Groggily narrated by the protagonist, cop-turned-private eye Fritz Brown, the film suffers from a wavering tone and a miscalculated decision to let the story's shaggy dog aspects override its mystery elements. Former cop Brown (Michael Rooker) thinks of his detective agency as an easy way to augment his earnings as a repo man. Though he quit the force to avoid the Los Angeles cesspool, he steps right back into the criminal muck after accepting a surveillance assignment from Fat Dog (William Sasso). Without coming clean about why, Fat Dog asks Brown to keep an eye on his under-aged sister, Jane (Selma Blair), a seventeen year-old piano student. Figuring Fat Dog for a harmless, homeless eccentric, Brown doesn't bother to wonder how Fat Dog can pay Brown's salary, when he chooses to live on the streets. While tracking Jane, the mistress of senior citizen tycoon Solly K.(Harold Gould), Brown uncovers a confederation between Solly K. and crooked cop Haywood Cathcart (Brion James), a glad-handing hypocrite Brown would love to nail. Brown unwittingly endangers the lives of those he pumps for information and learns that there's some connection between Fat Dog and an arson fire once orchestrated by Solly K., but after Fat Dog turns up dead, Brown is hard-put to assemble the pieces of the puzzle. Brown peers into the Pandora's box of Solly K.'s business activities, Brown uncovers the millionaire's reprehensible personal life. Can Brown honor Fat Dog's memory by nailing Cathcart and rescuing Jane from Solly K.'s clutches? Echoes of the far-superior CHINATOWN can be heard throughout this muted tale of corruption. Although its oddball tangents weaken the narrative thrust, the production is redeemed by peripheral supporting players like Tobin Bell and Barry Newman. But at the same time, it's a sign that a movie's in trouble when you're waiting for the colorful cameos. leave a comment --Robert Pardi
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