Sometimes I can't believe my luck. When I put this next in my queue, I had no idea it was set around Christmas, with plenty of audiovisual trappings thereof. That said, the time of year is no more important to the plot than it is in Die Hard (both produced by Joel Silver). Doesn't even rate a mention in the KKBB Wikipedia synopsis.
New York burglar Harry (Robert Downey Jr.), on the run from police, accidentally enters a room where acting auditions are being held -- for just the kind of character he is. The casting director (Larry Miller) sends him to L.A., where PI "Gay" Perry (Val Kilmer) is supposed to train him for a screen test playing a PI. He also runs into former friend/crush Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), now a struggling actress, and smittenly tells her he's a real detective. In no time, Harry and Perry (yes, it gets confusing if you don't listen closely) witness the disposal of an actual, rather high-profile murder victim. Not long after, another reported death means something more personal to Harry. Against Perry's advice, he tries to solve the mystery himself with what he learned from a fictitious novel series.
Have a few contrived coincidences, right? Well, I don't mind when they begin up front, especially in a comedy. The point is to poke fun at Raymond Chandler-type stories, after all. Brett Halliday's book Bodies Are Where You Find Them forms the initial basis, but with the emphasis on "loosely," I'm guessing Halliday didn't have a sendup in mind.
As a mystery, it seems about average in complexity. I'm not positive that I understand the story in full, but at least it doesn't leave me thinking there's no sensible solution. Harry is not a bright or educated guy (in contrast to Downey's Sherlock Holmes four years later), but like the Dude in The Big Lebowski, he has his clicking moments. And his practice with sleight of hand helps for some action scenes.
Despite seeing Tropic Thunder three weeks ago, and despite both flicks being swear-heavy, politically incorrect, dark parodies featuring Downey, I don't find them terribly similar. It's not like Harry and Perry spend a while thinking the real murder is fake. One of them is a genuine pro detective. And the framing is quite different, with Harry's frequent narration doing time jumps and criticizing both himself and the movie.
I should clarify the "politically incorrect" part. Gay Perry is quite masculine yet indeed gay, which factors into a lot of punchlines. This was acceptable in 2005, judging from contemporary SNL sketches, but I'm less certain that modern activists would tolerate it. There's also the problem of female characters being libertine and/or dead, but that comes with the genre cliche territory, and the males are no more respectable when you think about it. For my part, I was more concerned about the tragic elements threatening to cancel out the humor.
Thankfully, the gestalt is done well enough to overcome those concerns. When it's not funny, it's still mentally or viscerally engaging. I can see why Downey loved the Harry role above all others and why it helped him become Iron Man.
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