I've been fascinated by the evolution Anderson's career has taken. He's long
been my favorite filmmaker, but the Anderson I fell in love with; the guy who
gave us Altman-esque ensembles like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and Punch
Drunk Love has slowly disappeared. His films are have always been small of
scope but thematically sprawling, but with There will Be Blood and The
Master he's taken on a more commanding approach, emphasizing mood and a
powerful lead performance. Inherent Vice fits somewhere in the middle,
but the tone is definitely loopier than anything Anderson has done before,
which is a good thing.
Pynchon's novel is basically a jab at the soft underbelly of the hippie
generation's waning moments; when those who had been "against the
man" were now being co-opted willingly by "the man". It was a
darker time than many realized; perhaps too high or stoned to notice how the
world was changing around them. There's artificiality to most of the wild
denizens of Inherent Vice, with the exception of drugged-out detective
Larry "Doc" Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix), who is like our goofy guide
through one long acid trip. Whether you go in with your brain turned off or on
auto-pilot, the plot is never going to coalesce into anything that makes a lick
of sense. The lack of cohesion could prove as frustrating as a friend who
messes up the "puff puff pass" rotation, but those who are in the
right mood will find it a pretty groovy ride.
So where to start? Sportello, sporting a mean set of mutton chops, is a
pretty laid back cat even after he gets hired by an ex-girlfriend (Katherine
Waterston in an unforgettably alluring performance) to find her missing
billionaire boyfriend (Eric Roberts). It isn't long before she goes missing,
too, and soon Sportello is up to his eyeballs in weirdoes. There's a sell-out
musician (Owen Wilson), an oddball dentist (Martin Short), mysterious
organizations of ill-repute, and Sportello's flat-topped rule-breaking enemy
Detective "Bigfoot" Bjornsen (Josh Brolin). Each encounter leads him
from the beaches of L.A. to the seedy side of the counterculture generation,
revealing a dark conspiracy connected to the upper echelons of society. The
Man!!!
Inherent Vice is too incoherent and overlong to be completely satisfying,
but it's Anderson's handling of the atmosphere that is just right. Like a mix of The
Big Lebowski and The Big Sleep, its charm lies in being both
ridiculous and convoluted. The constantly swerving plot and endless red
herrings pile up to the point that you can't help but laugh. And right in the
middle of it all is Phoenix's performance as the perpetually-dazed Sportello.
He's not quite a cartoon character, but there are times when he comes off like
an outcast from Airplane! or Top Secret! Phoenix never quite goes
over the line, though, and Sportello remains a fascinating character
throughout, one who is just level-headed enough to see how the world is
changing for the worse. While the star-studded cast also includes Reese
Witherspoon, Benicia Del Toro, Jena Malone, and Maya Rudolph, most of them are
pretty forgettable. On the other hand, Waterston leaves a seductive imprint in
her few appearances that lingers throughout, while Brolin is hilarious as the
comically rigid Bjornsen.Coupled with Jonny Greenwood's diverse, era authentic score and Robert
Elswit's crisp cinematography, the film ranks as one of Anderson's most
beautiful and well-staged. Inherent Vice demands that you be in a
certain kind of trippy mood to fully embrace it, and some will simply never be
in the right head space for that.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
