L.A. Confidential (1997)

★★★★
Lieutenant Detective Ed Exley interrogates a man suspected of murdering multiple people in a diner, among them a former cop. Exley has the suspect right where he wants him, or does he? There are two other suspects, and after he sorts through their stories, he realizes that he just uncovered another crime. He shifts his questioning to get answers about the location of a missing girl. This is a small sampling of how L.A. Confidential plays out. It’s a richly layered story taking place in 1950s Los Angeles, a city and era brought to life with Danny DeVito’s opening narration and Curtis Hanson’s brilliant direction. The aforementioned crimes intersect, but even then, it’s half the story. The movie features lots of detours and many characters with different agendas, yet Hanson juggles these elements effectively and it all comes together in a smashing conclusion.

Sid Hudgens (DeVito) is the publisher of Hush-Hush, a tabloid magazine covering celebrity scandals and anything else that will generate salacious headlines. He introduces us to an idyllic Los Angeles, land of beaches, orange groves and movie stars. Much like how David Lynch began Blue Velvet, Hudgens quickly reveals something sinister under the surface. Organized crime is a plague. Gangster Mickey Cohen rules the land, until he is finally imprisoned for tax evasion. Soon after, someone is assassinating Cohen’s lieutenants, ensuring that nothing is left of his old network that could rise and fill the void. We are introduced to three cops on the Los Angeles Police Department. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) is a junior cop who aspires to live up to his father’s reputation. Bud White (Russell Crowe) is a bruising force of nature. He despises woman beaters and isn’t afraid to let his fists do the talking. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is the technical advisor for Badge of Honor, a Dragnet-style T.V. show that offers him the spotlight he seeks. He also works with Sid Hudgens, providing him photo opportunities for high-profile arrests that will ensure the readers of Hush-Hush have something to discuss at the watercooler.

Exley responds to a shootout at the Nite Owl diner. The cook was shot behind the counter. Exley finds everyone else in the men’s room, including Detective Stensland (Graham Beckel), recently discharged from the force for his part in a jailhouse brawl that the press dubbed Bloody Christmas. Captain Dudley Smith (James Cromwell) takes charge of the case and assigns interrogations to Exley. White recognizes one of the victims, which brings him to the home of Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn), a movie producer who also runs a call girl service featuring girls altered by plastic surgery to look like movie stars. One such courtesan is Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger), whom Bud White spotted with Nite Owl victim Susan Lefferts (Amber Smith) only a few nights prior. Lynn Bracken looks like Veronica Lake, and the two start a relationship when Pierce orders her to seduce him. Meanwhile, Exley and Vincennes team up to track down the suspects—three black men who were spotted in the vicinity of the diner.

The Nite Owl massacre, and the motivation behind the crime, drives the plot forward, but with so much happening around the edges, it’s inevitable that the movie lulls us into a false sense of security. The three suspects escape and are killed in a shootout. Ed Exley gets a medal of valor, Vincennes returns to his T.V. show, and Bud White gets the girl. What of those unresolved questions? It’s clear from the outset that this is a movie without a single wasted scene or throwaway line of dialogue. Susan Lefferts’ mother fails to recognize her due to her plastic surgery. Susan had a new boyfriend, whom her mother detested. Jack Vincennes manipulates a young actor (Simon Baker, in an early role) into a tryst with the District Attorney in another scheme to get Sid Hudgens more compromising photographs for his dirt rag. Exley senses something amiss when the missing girl abducted by the three Nite Owl suspects is unclear about what time they left to carry out the shooting. The plot thickens when heroin enters the conversation, adding yet another complication to an already complicated plot.

The three main actors of L.A. Confidential are terrific. Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce, barely known at this time, slip into their roles with ease. Crowe as Bud White is a tough guy with a fierce intensity in his eyes. He carries himself well, moving around the room like a tornado when his temper gets out of control. Pearce plays Ed Exley as a somewhat naïve cop who understands the politics needed to advance. After Bloody Christmas, he elevates to the position of Lieutenant Detective using a laser focus that will serve him well later in the story. Kevin Spacey has (or had, before he disgraced himself later in his career) this gift of toeing the line, so that you’re not sure if his characters are bluffing or not. Would he have really fired the security coordinator in Horrible Bosses? Was he really from another planet in K-PAX? Of course, there’s his surprising reversal in The Usual Suspects. As Jack Vincennes, Spacey is a cop who loves rubbing elbows with the rich and famous, a double life that is put to good use when he amusingly assists Exley in a confrontation with Mickey Cohen’s former bodyguard Johnny Stompanato (Paolo Seganti) and his date. He’s all about fame, but is he a good guy? Not really, but he knows where to draw the line, which he demonstrates when he contemplates what he should do with a $50 finder’s fee that he received from Sid.

I saw this in theaters in 1997. Watching it years later, I can better appreciate its complex story, which incorporates real people (gangster Mickey Cohen) and real events (Bloody Christmas) into its tale. What cannot go unmentioned in this retrospective look is the movie’s award tally at the 1998 Academy Awards. The Academy got it right with Best Picture. Titanic is the best picture of 1997. I can discuss Titanic’s greatness elsewhere on this site, so I’ll focus on one award that L.A. Confidential did win, which was Best Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger’s performance as Lynn Bracken. Just as someone could say to me that the Academy made a mistake with “Best Picture” (and there are many who believe this), I could respond by saying that the Academy made a mistake with Best Supporting Actress. Lynn Bracken’s story is not unlike the story of many others who came to Hollywood in search of fame. Not everyone makes it, so Lynn eventually landed on Pierce Patchett’s radar and found herself entertaining clients in search of celebrity lookalikes. Through Basinger’s performance, we gather that she has grown content with her situation. She’s sexy and seductive. When Ed comes calling, she proves too tempting even for the by-the-book detective. Bracken is a siren, and Basinger gives us no reason to doubt her abilities. Despite that, it is a convincing performance, but not a great one. Julianne Moore from Boogie Nights should have won. I believed it in 1998 and I believe it now.

This is not to diminish Basinger’s contribution to L.A. Confidential. It is the sum of its parts, and everyone had a hand in its greatness, Basinger included. Curtis Hanson and cowriter Brian Helgeland crafted a fascinating story of corruption and deception, featuring dialogue that doesn’t stop to define its slang terms but contextually clear enough to know what everyone is saying. (The movie won its other Academy Award, for Best Adapted Screenplay, based on James Ellroy’s novel.) It’s a stellar example of film noir, a genre that was seemingly left behind along with the western and the musical, but occasionally sees talented filmmakers work within it with standout results (2005’s Sin City). Early on, Captain Smith asks Lieutenant Exley if he’d be willing to commit unethical acts if he knew someone was guilty. He says no, but his journey is the kind that will make him rethink his values. Justice in this city can only be consistently found on shows like Badge of Honor. In the real world, dealing with the criminal element isn’t so easy, especially if the criminal element is so close to home.

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