MULHOLLAND FALLS
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(MGM)
Directed by Lee Tamahori
Written by Pete Dexter, from a story by Pete Dexter and Floyd
Mutrix
Cast Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris
Penn, Melanie Griffith, Treat Williams, Jennifer
Connelly, Daniel Baldwin, Andrew McCarthy, John
Malkovich, Bruce Dern
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence, language, nudity, and
sexual content)
Running Time 107 min.
Reviewed at Six Forks Station Cinemas, Raleigh, NC (26APR96)
==
CHINATOWN it ain't. Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, and Chazz Palminteri are some of the big names in this terrible, top-heavy train-wreck of a thriller from New Zealand director Lee Tamahori (ONCE WE WERE WARRIORS). Nick, Chazz, Michael Madsen, and Chris Penn play an elite team of LAPD detectives (based on the real-life "Hat Squad") investigating the murder of a beautiful young woman (Jennifer Connelly). The often-gruesome trail-- she was found with all of her bones broken, as if dropped from a great height-- leads into the desert, into a conspiracy involving the Atomic Energy Commission. Yawn.
The period detail is a pleasant distraction-- enough hats, suits, and old cars to keep one's mind off the contrived and often confounding plot. MULHOLLAND FALLS also features an impressive array of prominent players, none of whom, though, makes much of a dent. Ms. Griffith-- as Nolte's character's wife-- registers no better than Madsen, Penn, William Petersen, Bruce Dern, or Treat Williams. Even a cameo by Rob Lowe is wasted.
Stick with it, though, and you'll have plenty of time to ponder such imponderabilities as: how does the exceptionally endowed Ms. Connelly keep from falling forward? Does she wear a special brace? If Sean Penn in DEAD MAN WALKING is the current incarnation of Elvis, then is his heavier-set brother a representation of the King's, uh, "later years?" And, of course, will the unfortunate Chazz Palminteri still have a career after the four consecutive howlers JADE, DIABOLIQUE, FAITHFUL, and, now, MULHOLLAND FALLS?
Grade: D+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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