Noirvember: Jagged Edge (1985)

A script by Joe Eszterhas, a central character who is confident and sexy, but may also have committed a savage murder, and a major star helping to add some sparkle to enjoyably trashy pulp fare, it’s easy to see why some view Jagged Edge as a warm-up for Basic Instinct, but it’s also important to note that the two films are as different as they are similar.

Jeff Bridges plays Jack Forrester, a man accused of the vicious murder of his wife. He stands to gain everything from her death, and a lot of people know that the marriage had some problems, but he protests his innocence. Picking Teddy Barnes (Glenn Close) as his attorney, a woman who had hoped to leave criminal law behind, Forrester soon learns that his good looks and charm won’t be enough to stop the truth coming out. And the truth isn’t very nice. But it doesn’t necessarily make him a murderer.

Perhaps I have been spoiled over the years, and I have certainly been influenced by seeing many other Eszterhas scripts onscreen before this one, but Jagged Edge is a surprisingly tame and polished affair. There’s an ill-advised blurring of boundaries between attorney and client, to put it mildly, and sex is weaponized  in a way that will be familiar to those who have seen any of his other films, but director Richard Marquand never dwells on the lustier moments. He prefers to always circle back to the courtroom proceedings, or investigation ongoing during the trial, as quickly as possible. Where others may have made this an erotic thriller with just enough courtroom scenes to keep things grounded, Marquand delivers a legal thriller with just enough chemistry between the leads to keep things sexually-charged.

Both Close and Bridges are excellent in their roles, the former smart and tough, the latter attractively carefree and advantageously looking like . . . Jeff Bridges, and they work equally well together and individually, although the film sticks with Close for most of the scenes not set in the courtroom. Peter Coyote is the prosecuting attorney, Thomas Krasny, and he’s a lot of fun in his role, the typically over-confident prosecutor who starts to become increasingly nervous as more and more cracks appear in the case. Last, but not least, I have to mention Robert Loggia, stealing a couple of scenes as a private detective named Sam Ransom (a role that for him nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, losing out to Don Ameche for his turn in Cocoon).

Solid entertainment from start to finish, Jagged Edge just doesn’t have anything that really lifts it up. No pun intended, it lacks a bit of edge. Even the John Barry score feels a bit more restrained than it could be, although I may again be dealing with my own bias caused by exposure to other movies of this ilk. I certainly enjoyed it while it was on though, and it felt like a title I was long overdue to check off my “watchlist”, but I doubt I will ever rush to rewatch it.

7/10

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Sphere (1998)

Although not released at the same time as the big underwater thrillers that battled it out in the late 1980s (those main three titles being Leviathan, DeepStar Six, and The Abyss, of course), but Sphere is nicely in line with those films, and any other underwater thriller that tends to mix horror or sci-fi with our fascination/fear of the deep waters that cover so much of the surface of our planet.

There's an alien spacecraft found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, which understandably requires some investigation. That leads to the standard assembling of a group of smart people who might be able to get to the bottom of things. There's a marine biologist (Beth Halperin, played by Sharon Stone), a psychologist (Norman Goodman, played by Dustin Hoffman), a mathematician (Samuel L. Jackson), an astrophysicist (Ted Fielding, played by Liev Schreiber), and a U.S. Navy Captain (Harold Barnes, played by Peter Coyote). Once at the main site, our assembled team discover a number of strange details, and then a large and impenetrable, perfect sphere. And things are about to get much stranger, putting the group in danger as sanity is worn down and people start to turn on one another.

Michael Crichton has written numerous best-sellers, and his name has been involved with a number of enjoyable blockbuster movies, but he hasn't always been adapted well to the big screen. Sphere is one of the better Crichton adaptations of the past few decades, although it suffers from the fact that the finale probably isn't as satisfying as viewers want it to be. Adapted by Kurt Wimmer, the final screenplay by Stephen Hauser and Paul Attanasio is a decent attempt to mix in some spectacle, thrills and tension, and some solid psychological horror (albeit mild horror). As with so many Crichton tales, there are a number of great ideas, and the script at least executes many of them very well.

Director Barry Levinson also does good work here, making the most of his all-star cast and the chance to provide a number of set-pieces that build and build on the way to the grand finale. The weakness seems to be in the source material, but only in the way that it doesn't feel designed to provide the most obvious type of third act resolution that so many of us are used to from these kinds of movies.

There's nobody here who feels out of place when it comes to the cast. The leads are just superb, all bringing certain qualities to their characters, which is obviously why they were picked. Stone is another strong female here, although one with a vulnerability that ends up being exploited. Hoffman is a bit arrogant with his intelligence, Jackson is more relaxed and open to seeing how things play out, and Schreiber is, well, just fun to have onscreen alongside the others. Coyote is as dependable as ever, and there's even a good little turn from Queen Latifah, playing one of the few other characters to have actual dialogue.

It may not quite do enough to warrant me making a pun like "the only thing you need to fear is Sphere itself", but this is a sorely-neglected blockbuster from the late '90s that tries to weave between entertainingly dumb and entertainingly smart.

8/10

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Noir-vember: Femme Fatale (2002)

Written and directed by Brian De Palma, Femme Fatale is entertaining and frustrating in equal measure. It's De Palma at his most playful, which can be very good or very bad, depending on how you usually react to his style.

Rebecca Romjin plays a woman who helps to steal some very expensive items in a daring robbery, and then you get the inevitable treachery and chaos, which leads to Romjin then heading somewhere she can lay low for a while. It turns out that she picks a home in which a woman who looks remarkably like her already lives. And that woman is about to commit suicide, which could lead to a whole new life for Romjin. If she can keep herself relatively hidden away.

The first time I watched Femme Fatale, I hated it. None of it is even remotely believable, the performances are all played at different levels, and De Palma seemed more interested in indulging himself than giving viewers a film. That all remains true, and yet I enjoy it more nowadays way more than I did on that initial viewing. Maybe it's because I know that De Palma almost always seems more interested in indulging himself whenever he directs a movie, maybe it's because I knew how things were going to play out so didn't invest in something I thought may develop towards a realistic finale, or maybe I just enjoyed the pulpiness of it all a bit more this time.

The script remains pretty awful though. This is De Palma at his most inept. He has given himself a plot that allows space for some of his favourite themes, yet he's also painted himself into a corner with other aspects of the plot that need to be focused on. Which leads to him seeming to just mash everything together with no attempt to blend the seams or edit the better sequences into something more generally cohesive. It's not hard to follow, it's not completely incoherent, it's just too much style over substance, leaving viewers feeling as if they are missing out on one or two pieces of the puzzle, ensuring that the completed product never quite satisfies as it should.

Romjin is excellent in the lead role, although that's largely due to her look and presence. There are times when she's mangling an accent, but there's usually a reason for that, and she's very believable as the kind of woman who could weave a spell on one or two useful men. Peter Coyote is one of those men, meeting her at just the right time and offering hope that could also turn very sour. The other male lead is Antonio Banderas, playing that De Palma favourite, the man always happiest viewing the world through the lens of a camera, and seeing something that wasn't meant for his eyes. The other main players - Eriq Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute, and Rie Rasmussen - all do decidedly . . . okay, but they're used as and when De Palma requires things to move along, as opposed to being as determined and effective as we know they would be in this situation.

A film that feels, in many ways, like a final film from De Palma, Femme Fatale isn't up there with any of his best work. There's fun to be had here though, especially if you are familiar with the style and recurring motifs he has always put front and centre over the years.

5/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy the movie here.