Director Paul Thomas Anderson has faithfully adapted a novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon for Inherent Vice, an hilarious look into a 1970’s L.A, awash with drugged-up eccentricity as a convoluted would-be missing persons case is sniffed around by a stoner private investigator. Said P.I is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix who brings Larry “Doc” Sportello to life with a brilliant nuanced performance that maintains shades of the actor’s often mysterious public persona.
The mutton-chopped Doc still holds some feelings for his ex-girlfriend Shasta Ray Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) and plays upon them to justify helping her out in a yet-to-happen missing persons case. Her married lover, the charismatic Michael Z. Wolfmann (Eric Roberts, is seemingly the verge of being disappeared by his wife Sloane (Serena Scott Thomas) so Doc lovingly offers to help in between one of his many narcotic blank outs.
Phoenix is a joy to watch as he sifts through a sea of neo-Nazis, gnarly hardened police, drug rings, and fetishists, torn between a comedy of errors and a surrealist exploration of counterculture. He runs through the complicated plot while bumping into memorable characters played by Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, and Benicio Del Toro, all fleshed out and slotting in perfectly with their colourful environment.
Josh Brolin (Lt. Det. Christian F. Bjornsen) really does hold up the brunt of quality acting in this film though, stealing every scene as an arrogant, ridiculous cop with the nickname of “Bigfoot”. The camerawork is used in such a way to twist all his actions into far-fetched slapstick with the added bonus of Pheonix’s hazy facial expressions, cutting through to often turn this drama into one big, genuinely hilarious – in a nervous laughter kind of way – comedy.
A memorable guest appearance from <b as an excessively coked-up dentist furthers Inherent Vice’s moments of silliness; moments which contrast with the deep and rich attention given to the atmosphere of the film. You’d be forgiven if your mind instantly jumps to one of Anderson’s other classics, Boogie Nights, when the sharpened and accentuated characteristics of drug culture are holding the fragments of this opaque storyline together.
By the time the 148 minute film arrives at a cloudy conclusion the viewer has been taken on in and out of a mind fraught with drugs struggling to solve a case that has more layers than it should – assuming Anderson wanted the story to be at least somewhat comprehensible. The beginning and middle of the movie have that sense of openness and unpredictability that is exciting and a pleasure to watch unfold, but by the end you’re left wishing there was at least some linearity to cap off this whirlwind of strange, wonderful, and inappropriate L.A urbanites.
Review Score: THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Running Time: 148 minutes
Inherent Vice is in Australian cinemas as of Thursday 12th March
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