MULHOLLAND FALLS
A film review by Edwin Jahiel
Copyright 1996 Edwin Jahiel
MULHOLLAND FALLS ** Directed by Lee Tamahori. Written by Pete Dexter. Story by Pete Dexter and Floyd Mutrux. Photography, Haskell Wexler. Editing, Sally Menke. Production design, Richard Sylbert. Costumes, Elle Mirojnick.Music, Dave Grusin. Producers, Richard D. Zanuck & Lili Fini Zanuck. Cast: Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, Chass Palminteri, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer Connelly, Daniel Baldwin, Andrew McCarthy, and John Malkovich. An MGM release. 107 minutes. Rated R (violence, sex, language)
All you wanted to know about the "Hat Squad" and then some. In the early 1950s, there really was within the Los Angeles Police Department a "Hat Squad" of four tough and independently-minded cops. They were a good example of the truism that sometimes just the thinnest of lines separates lawmen from gangsters or vigilantes. As per the movie, they dressed with gangster chic and used gangster methods.
At the start, led by Nick Nolte (overcutely named Max Hoover), they roughhouse, arrest a gangster, take him for a drive "to the airport." Soon the captive says "this ain't the way to the airport," which, if you've heard once, you heard a thousand times in movies.
The next bit is better. When the man understands that he's a candidate for the final solution, he protests "You can't do this. This is America." Nolte replies "This isn't America, Jack. this is L.A." Then they throw the fellow over a Mulholland Drive cliff.
This was just a mood-setting hors d'oeuvre. The main course is about what happens when Nolte investigates the murder of a young woman. Movie cliches spill out all over. Most of them don't travel well. Director Lee Tamahori, the New Zealander who made "Once Were Warriors," must have watched hundreds of American police, gangster and "noir" movies. He can't resist any genres conventions, adds to them several post-modern ellipses that may not hurt, but annoy, and embroiders to the point of obfuscation, absurdism and arbitrariness.
"Mulholland Falls," in the hands of the writer and the director turns into an occasionally interesting but mostly mushy compendium of the old roles held by Humphrey Bogart, Dick Powell, Robert Mitchum and the like. Above all, you sense the desire of this movie to emulate "Chinatown." I does not. " Last year's underrated "Devil in a Blue Dress, " set in 1948 L.A., beats "Mulholland" hollow in every way, acting included.
Using generous doses of flashbacks and other devices, the movie throws in bucketfuls of coincidences, improbabilities and impossibilities. The dead girl was for a while the mistress of Hoover-Nolte. She was also the mistress of a bigwig. Someone had taken (but how?) very sharp pictures of sexual activitity. The Atomic Energy Commission gets into the game, with dark, private as well as Governmental secrets. The Untouchable (and one suspects, rather mad) Hatters do things that defy logic.
Just one example. Nolte (forget about the mistress part) is happily married with Melanie Griffith. She primps at length while waiting for her man to come home, presumably to make love. Now (somehow) Nolte has in his possession a 16mm film of the dead girl, when she was very much alive and was having sex with Nolte. Nolte gets home and finds a shell-shocked, pitiful Melanie. She (somehow) had stumbled upon the film (in her house! ). .She (somehow) has a movie projector on the premises. She (somehow) knows how to run it. Anyhow, it is a very sad, pitiable spouse who now faces Mr. Hoover. (Griffith's role is tiny, of use only as a name on the marquee).
Nolte, the hard-boiled egg, mumbles and goes from no facial expression to level 2 on the scale of 10. Best buddy Palminteri is around for camaraderie as well as comic relief, but he is so dumb that he's not funny, so dumb that you wonder about the entrance requirements to the Hat Squad.
The loss is not total. Early on, a bar singer does a nice job of "Harbor Lights," the song we associate mostly with John Ford's movie "The Long Voyage Home." Talented people contributed the camera work, sets and costumes. Between yawns, you could be impressed by the visuals.
From null@filmcritic.com Wed May 8 11:35:41 EDT 1996 Article: 3333 of rec.arts.movies.reviews Path: nntphub.cb.att.com!not-for-mail From: null@filmcritic.com (Christopher Null) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews Subject: REVIEW: MULHOLLAND FALLS (1996) Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Date: 7 May 1996 17:12:16 GMT Organization: Null Publishing Co. Lines: 58 Sender: ecl@mtcts1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Approved: ecl@mtcts1.att.com Message-ID: <4mo09g$6cm@nntpb.cb.att.com> Reply-To: null@filmcritic.com (Christopher Null) NNTP-Posting-Host: mtcts2.mt.att.com Summary: r.a.m.r. #05150 Keywords: author=Null Originator: ecl@mtcts2 Xref: nntphub.cb.att.com rec.arts.movies.reviews:3333 Status: RO
MULHOLLAND FALLS
A film review by Christopher Null
Copyright 1996 Christopher Null
Just so you know, there are no waterfalls in Los Angeles. The titular MULHOLLAND FALLS refers to the smarmy practice of taking a criminal to the high point of the mountainous Mulholland Drive and booting him off, only to catch up with him sometime later at the bottom.
MULHOLLAND FALLS is the preferred method of ridding 1950s L.A. of unwanted baddies, and it is most often used by a foursome of elite cops: Nick Nolte, Chazz Palminteri, Chris Penn, and Michael Madsen. Their newest mission: to find the murderer of Allison (Jennifer Connelly), a girl whose bizarre death leads the gang to a General (John Malkovich) at the Atomic Energy Commission and his number one thug (Treat Williams).
Could have been interesting, but it unfortunately isn't. The main problem appears to be substantial meddling with what likely started out as a good script. Instead, there are no surprises here at all. The plot is formulaic and leaves nothing to the imagination, and it moves at a snail's pace. Also, important expository scenes have been cut out to apparently give more screen time to the many big-name stars paraded through the film.
The most noticeable flaw in this regard is Melanie Griffith's character, playing Nolte's estranged wife, whose role is a complete throwaway but is used to try (and fails) to develop sympathy for her and her poor hubby. Almost as bad are Andrew McCarthy, as a stereotypical homosexual informer, and Connelly, who we see only in flashbacks. Note: when we do see her, we are treated to generous portions of surgically-enhanced cheesecake.
Still, the movie has its moments. The quartet is mostly entertaining when they interact among themselves, particularly Nolte and Palminteri. There are a number of nice lines of dialogue that really imbue the film with a sense of the macabre. And placing us against the backdrop of nuclear testing is somewhat thought-provoking and interesting. As well, director Lee Tamahori, who last did ONCE WERE WARRIORS, is as capable here as can be expected given a lackluster script.
The bottom line is that MULHOLLAND FALLS runs in circles pretty slowly. You might expect a little more from an American film, but as Nolte's character puts it, "This isn't America; this is L.A."
RATING: ***
\-------------------------------\ |* Unquestionably awful | |** Sub-par on many levels | |*** Average, hits and misses | |**** Good, memorable film | |***** Perfection | \-------------------------------\
-Christopher Null / null@filmcritic.com -Screenwriter-Producer / Novelist-Publisher -Visit the Movie Emporium at http://www.filmcritic.com/ -and e-mail requests to join the movie review mailing list
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