Inherent Vice
Anyone claiming to like this cinematic disaster should be exempt from spending eternity in Hell. Why would the Devil want to ruin his mood and have you hanging around?
Some critics have said that Thomas Pynchon’s novel, “Inherent Vice”, was too wildly bizarre to be made into a film. Having now seen it, let me simply say that it can’t be made into a decent film.
Like his last film, The Master, Director Paul Thomas Anderson once again stars Joaquin Phoenix, an actor of limited range. Here he plays a drug using detective/hippy in California in 1970 named Larry “Doc” Sportello. Sporting ridiculous hair and outlandish sideburns, he appears in every scene wearing sandals. Let me just say that the phone he fell in love with in last year’s Her would have left him if she could have walked.
In this case his former girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) disappears after she sought his help concerning an affair she was conducting with an extraordinarily wealthy real estate agent. Occasionally using the help of Lt. Det. Christian F. “Bigfoot” Bjornsen, played with a bit of style by Josh Brolin, Sportello travels take him to various idiotic locations.
He occasionally stops to continue a sexual relationship with an assistant prosecutor, here played by Reese Witherspoon. It is hard to understand why she agreed to do this role, as her character has the same moral inadequacies as the one she played in this year’s Wild.
The film has too many weaknesses to mention, and it is difficult to sit in the theater without hoping that it soon reaches an ending. Despite the fact that members of the audience laughed on several occasions, the sad reality is that the only really funny moments appear in the previews.
As most of you know, January is the season where Hollywood tries to make Shinola out of cinematic shit. This film falls into that category.
On the other hand, I did see that Taken 3 made over $40 million this past weekend, so what the Hell do I know? If raw stupidity equates to a box office smash, then there is no reason to expect North Korea to again interfere with domestic releases.
