Inherent Vice seems to be the LEAST unfilmable Thomas Pynchon novel in fifty years, which is to say its only MODERATELY unfilmable. That said, if you radically cut and punch up the novel, it would be conceivable to make a fairly conventional black comedy, sort of a farcical Chinatown. But for better and worse, P.T. Anderson went all in, meticulously trying to recreate Pynchons impenetrable plot, head-snapping tonal shifts, and shaggy drugged-out paranoia -- and throwing in tons of the novels spiraling prose, read in voice-over by Joanna Newsom (?!). Sometimes its just baffling; on the page you can get away with almost anything under cover of literary, but it just feels too strange to have the sort of Looney Tunes cartoon physics of a Pynchon story happening in what looks very much like the real world. Once Martin Sheens lascivious dentist shows up, you might be excused for wondering what the hell youve wandered into. Its all worth it though, for Joaquin Phoenix, who speaks Pynchons idiosyncratic stoner dialect like he was born to it. (You can hear every a-and, and tossed-in like.) Hes the original horndog Holy Fool the old guys been writing about for decades, Benny Profane and Tyrone Slothrop and Jeremiah Dixon, brought to funny and touching life. And his gonzo chemistry with Josh Brolins melancholy, violent wannabe-actor cop is a love/hate affair for the ages.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 17:48:57 +0000
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