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| Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang |
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  (8/10)
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Runtime: 102 |
| Public Rating: 8.50 (24 votes) |
Director: Shane Black |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Action/Adventure/Comedy |
Year: 2005 |
| Writer(s): Shane Black, Brett Hallyday (novel, in part) |
| Distributor: Warner Brothers |
| Reviewed by: Mel Valentin |
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Based, in part, on the novel, "Bodies Are Where You Find Them" by Brett Halliday, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang marks longtime screenwriter Shane Black's directorial debut. If Black's name sounds vaguely familiar, it's because it should. Black's screenplays (The Long Kiss Goodnight, Last Action Hero, The Last Boy Scout, Lethal Weapon) are credited with revitalizing the action genre in the 1980s and early 1990s. His screenplays were clearly influenced by the pulp crime novels of the 1940s and 1950s, focusing on anti-heroes (even when they were on the right side of the law) who used their quick wits and gratuitous violence to defeat their irredeemably bad adversaries. His latest film, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, a comedy/crime/action/thriller carries over the wit and violence of his earlier work, but this time adds a surprising amount of self-reflexive irony and a willingness to parody genre conventions (even as Black recycles them).
Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), a woefully unsuccessful petty thief, stumbles into an audition in New York City (straight from his latest failure). Forced to pretend he's actually an actor on an audition, Harry impresses a casting director and the producer of a crime film, Dabney Shaw (Larry Miller). Offered an all-expenses trip to Los Angeles for additional screen tests, training, and ultimately the potential lead role as a detective, Harry accepts willingly. Harry is invited to a pool party at the home of an actor-turned-businessman Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen). There, he meets Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), a gay detective who works for Shaw. Perry has been asked to train Harry in the fine art of detecting. At the party, Harry encounters Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), a struggling actress. Harry and Harmony share a connection, but they just don't know it yet.
Harry has little time to rest or enjoy his stay in Los Angeles. His second night in Los Angeles, Harry accompanies Perry on what appears to be a routine stakeout. They banter, exchanging putdowns, just as the first major plot turn occurs: they're partial witnesses to a crime. The crime, of course, involves a hard-to-dispose of body. The mystery behind the crime becomes the plot device that pushes Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang forward. A second crime (a suicide that might be a murder) nods at Otto Preminger's Laura before revealing a connection to Harmony, who takes a personal interest in solving the second case, pulling Harry, who she thinks is actually a private investigator, into helping her. Thugs, working for an unnamed, mysterious employer, make several appearances, threatening Harry with physical pain. They're never identified by their real names, however, only as Mr. Frying Pan (Dash Mihok) and Mr. Fire (Rockmond Dunbar). One of their associates, Pink Hair Girl (Shannyn Sossamon) also plays a role in the unfolding mystery/crime plot. Harry also runs into a stewardess, Flicka (Angela Lindvall), who's only role seems to be the punchline to a joke, (she's referred to as "My Friend Flicka," an obscure boy-loves-horse film released in 1943 that few viewers will recognize).
Reversals pile on reversals, of course, with Harry, Perry, and Harmony pursuing several leads while also being pursued by the henchmen. Blood is spilled, often graphically, reminding us that Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was, after all, made by Shane Black. Some of the humor goes from black to blacker (a severed finger plays a role in one painful joke, while a game of Russian Roulette plays a role in another one). Most of the humor is of the F-bomb throwing variety or in verbal putdowns, but there's also self-referential humor (e.g., Harry serves as our self-deprecating narrator, often skipping ahead accidentally, rewinding the film when he remembers something he should have mentioned previously). The self-referential, ironic jokes work consistently, but some of the black humor simply doesn't. Black's use violence too is occasionally self-referential. When he isn't using violence to punctuate a light, comedic scene (which, in itself, can be shocking), he references or parodies the action-oriented violence from his own films, including two familiar action sequences that convert our bumbling hero into a straight-up action hero with a sharpshooter's aim (an earlier scene involves a torture scene reminiscent of a late scene in Lethal Weapon).
Likewise with the central mystery, which takes little effort to decipher ("decipher" may be too strong a word to use here). Anyone with a passing familiarity with film or roman noir will spot the villain from his/her first entrance, and decode his/her plan. Luckily, Black throws in enough knowing references to the genre, including chapter titles based on Raymond Chandler's crime novels ("The Lady in the Lake, "The Little Sister," "Farewell, My Lovely," "Trouble is My Business," "The Simple Art of Murder"). Those references run deeper than chapter titles, however. Black interweaves plot points and themes from Chandler's novels, updating them to a contemporary Los Angeles setting. In referencing Chandler, Black is paying homage to a singular crime novelist, one who elevated the crime novel, specifically the detective/crime novel, into fatalistic tragedy.
Black's contributions to the action genre certainly aren't on the same level as Chandler's, but it's easy to understand Black's interest in paying homage to Chandler and the writers who followed him, including the pulpy crime novels of the fifties and sixties. In Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, the Philip Marlowe/Mike Hammer character is called Johnny Gossamer, the hero-protagonist of a fictional series of pulp novels (with garish covers to match). The Gossamer novels function as common reference points for the characters, especially Harry and Harmony, who are hyper-aware of the novels' formulaic conventions, and comment on them freely (and how, supposedly, they match up to "real" or "reel" life). The joke, of course, lies in the characters being right (we later learn why, when we discover a third character with more than a passing familiarity with the novels, which he uses as a template for his actions).
There's one more, major reason to recommend Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: Robert Downey, Jr.'s return to a lead role in a theatrical film. His obvious talent and charm as an actor are on display here, but they also remind us, sadly, of the films Downey could have, but didn't, make over the last ten years. Let's hope the future brings more leading roles for Downey (and Val Kilmer, who's laconic, laid back presence is a perfect foil for Downey's). There's also one reason to give pause in recommending Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Black's overindulgence in humor that at time smacks of homophobia and gay baiting. Black would, of course, argue otherwise. With so much else to recommend, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, viewers will have to decide for themselves.
© Mel Valentin, 28th October, 2005
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