Rating of
2/4
Mulholland Falls....trips over the clif.
Indyfreak - wrote on 02/12/15
Compared to most neo-noirs these days that adopt a dark palette, the splashy colors and bright cinematography is much appreciated. But it tries to balance this out with a needlessly gloomy plot about infidelity, police brutality, and Cold War espionage. The attempt at making a philosophical point at the end actually renders the whole mystery pointless (to quote Nick Nolte's character: "She died for nothing, ya son of a bitch!"). That said, some of the cast works. Nick Nolte is the head cop with a murky set of principles; his lovable pal is played by Palminteri; Treat Williams is an overzealous army officer; and the standout performance is Jennifer Connelly as your standard 'hooker with a heart of gold'. On screen presence alone, she has never done better since. I cannot figure out why Roger Ebert, a noted fan of mystery movies, gave this a better rating than 'The Untouchables' - a vastly superior movie from which Mulholland Falls desperately wants to imitate or subvert without much success in either effort.
