Going to the movies can be compared to serial dating: there's no long-term commitment (normally two hours max), we can repeatedly experience that initial excitement, and there are always new fish in the sea every single Friday. But as we serial dating women and men know, a lot of those fish contain a substantial amount of mercury, despite the heated excitement of a seemingly good catch. It's like the guy who opens the girl's door, shuffles her off to a swanky restaurant and then proceeds to talk about his truck over the course of the meal.
My date with "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" began quite well, as it opened promisingly and energetically. With the first scene of a young magician sawing a girl in half and her screams at such a volume we believe she's actually being cut, I had hope I was finally watching a film that knows how to be fresh, creative and playful with the audience. Then as the credits began to appear in a style a la "The Pink Panther" and James Bond, I was surprised by the detail given to what is normally the most uncreative and mundane part of any film.
From the credits, we are taken to an L.A. party where we are introduced to Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), who assumes the role of narrator and explains just how he ended up at such a plush affair. We learn Harry is a crook who stumbled into an audition for a detective movie one night while running away from the cops. He gets the role and is flown to Hollywood for detective lessons from a man named Gay Perry (Val Kilmer). During the first lesson, Harry and Gay witness a murdered body being dumped into a lake. And as soon as they think they've taken care of that situation, Harry runs into his childhood friend and struggling actress, Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), who just found out her sister is dead. Believing that Harry is a detective, she hires him to investigate the case.
A movie's energy and excitement can often cause the audience to overlook inconsistencies in the narrative or other faults in the film. Howard Hawks' "The Big Sleep" is the perfect example. Neither Hawks nor the story's author, Raymond Chandler, logically understood the storyline, but who cares when you have Bogart and Bacall in verbal pursuit of one another.
But there is a problem if that initial excitement begins to wane, and we are left with nothing as the dust settles. Just think of that unfortunate girl who has yet to be served appetizers but has been served a hearty portion of truck-talk. Such is the case with "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang."
There are three elements that make the film work initially-Downey's charm, Pulp Fiction-esque violence and a cinematic self-awareness that toys with the conventions of the film noir and detective genres. But despite Downey's status as a highly underrated talent, no one actor can carry a film all by himself. As for the violence, it is absurdist in its humor; the first time Harry gets his finger chopped off, we slightly cringe. But when it gets knocked off again and eaten by a dog, the joke's long past its prime. The same idea goes for the scene when Harry puts one bullet in a four-chamber revolver and accidentally shoots a man because he figured there was only an eight percent chance of the bullet being in the proper chamber. It's an obvious reference to John Travolta's trigger-happy finger in "Pulp Fiction."
But there, the accident truly looked like an accident, not like a scene set up just to copy a cool scene from another popular movie. As for its take on the traditional detective or film noir story, it doesn't have much to say. Downey's narration, that stops the film mid-frame to backtrack and to directly address the audience, makes clear that style, not plot, is the major focus here. There are guns, girls and a prescribed amount of bodies to be slain. But although the film lets us know that it is familiar with what we expect from detective stories, its style does not offer us anything altogether new. It's acceptable to not focus on narrative, but there must be some stylish hook, like the dialogue in the films of Hawks and Tarantino.
"Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" joins a recent string of movies like "The Life Aquatic" and "I Heart Huckabees" that promises much, delivers some, but is ultimately inconsistent and unsatisfying. On the one hand, such failures are encouraging, because at least there are some innovative attempts still being made by someone other than Charlie Kaufman.
However, I'm dismayed by Hollywood's general inability to produce a coherent, enjoyable and polished final product.
