Twilight

     This smart neo-noir is pretty enjoyable, but it's too dumb for its own good. Let me explain. It boasts a great cast and an engaging story, but every once in a while (actually, a little too often for my taste), these crazy coincidences and plot twists pop up. Why? Well, because the movie would end otherwise. Take one example. Harry Ross is supposed to deliver some blackmail money to a woman named Gloria, whom he meets under a pier (not the smartest place). Not only does Johnny, the ex-boyfriend of Newman's employer Max's daughter who was recently released from prison, suddenly show up, but who should just happen to be at the pier that night but Newman's old sidekick. Not to mention that Gloria just happens to be Johnny's parole officer, and they just happened to have run into a guy who is mysteriously murdered in the first ten minutes of the film. I got a little exhausted, trying to keep up with the twists.

Anyway, Paul Newman plays an aging ex-cop who moonlighted as a PI until he was sent to Mexico to catch his friend Max's daughter Mel (Reese Witherspoon), who had run off with a loser. She accidentally shoots him, but he brings her back. Two years later, we meet Newman again. He's living above the garage of his friend, the ex-movie star Jack (Gene Hackman) and his seductive wife Catherine (Susan Sarandon). Hackman sends Newman to deliver some blackmail money, and he gets involved in a murder, which brings his ex-partner and ex-lover Verna (Stockard Channing) into the picture. Also involved is Ray (James Garner), another ex-cop who had worked security for the movie studios back when Sarandon's first husband mysteriously disappeared, conveniently allowing Hackman and Sarandon to get married. Turns out the murdered man (not the first husband, but the murder I discussed a few sentences ago) was another ex-cop (how many of them are there anyway?) who was still investigating the disappearance from twenty years before. Further mayhem ensues.

So, the plot doesn't offer much in the way of real surprises, despite its ludicrous twists and turns. Probably because we've seen them in other movies. The interesting thing about this film is that it is among the only ones I know of that involve the over-40 crowd as the main characters. Sarandon makes as good a femme fatale as anyone half her age, and Newman has resigned cool down to a science. Hackman and Garner don't have much to do, nor does Channing. Overall, this was a writing exercise (how many plot twists can you fit into a 94 minute movie) saved by two good performances.

Cinematographer Piotr Sobocinski, who shot this film, also shot "Trois Coleurs: Rouge" (aka Red), which is among the most beautifully shot movies I have ever seen. He died this past March at the age of 43, and the art of film will certainly miss him.

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