Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

RATING:

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Joel Michaely, Corbin Bernsen. Written and Directed by Shane Black.

Rated R for language, violence and sexuality/nudity.

Of all the films I viewed at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was the only one, in my opinion, that actually took a chance. Perhaps best encapsulated as a comedic, neo-noir, the film was written and directed by Shane Black, a man best known for his scripting work on the original Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. All three of these movies provide a different take on Black’s “buddy/action picture” philosophy. Partner two charismatic, yet strikingly different characters together. Sit back and watch as they’re reluctantly forced into a mission and, fingers crossed, a funny and suspenseful story ensues. Kiss Kiss follows this tradition but departs as a cinematic fable that unmistakably borrows from multiple genres without ever truly committing to any of them. The final product is commendably original and at many moments impressive in its execution. As a film experience as a whole, however, I was left with mixed feelings.

Robert Downey Jr. is Harry Lockhart, a former thief now aspiring actor researching a detective role in Los Angeles. Armed with an ironic wit and bumbling charm, Downey blends Lockhart with just the right amounts of sharpness and clueless confusion. The tone of the film is hard to nail, but the actor hits every note impeccably, making a calculated cinematic timing seem effortless. Aiding Lockhart in how to act like a sleuth is Gay Perry played by Val Kilmer. While true to his name, there’s nothing stereotypically flamboyant about the film’s real life private eye. He’s tough, smart, and incredibly good at what he does. He just happens to like dudes. Pairing Kilmer and Downey was inspired casting. Lockhart’s every spoken breath tries one of Perry’s nerves. While the whole being annoyed with a reluctant partner bit has been done to death, it feels different here. You get the impression that Perry truly, truly hates him. Some of the best comedy comes from straight (unintended pun) characters and Kilmer’s lines prove some of the funniest in the film. His face never changes as he insults his unwanted new protégé not because he’s necessarily stoic, but because he feels Lockhart isn’t even worth the altered expression.

Adding to the mix is Harmony Faith Lane by newcomer Michelle Monaghan. Lane, inspired by the pulp crime novels she adored as a child, moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Approaching her mid-thirties, her dreams of becoming a movie starlet seem to be escaping her. She encounters Lockhart at a bar when he tries to pick her up. While her recognition is immediate, it takes him awhile to realize that she is his longtime childhood crush. Lockhart is flooded with all of his old feelings. You find that his love for the girl is pure and innocent, even if the object of his affection isn’t as much. Monaghan and Downey play well off of each other. Their characters care for one another and have a long standing history but are repeatedly prevented from coming together for their very differing stances on crucial points. The actors, depending on the moment, portray these scenes convincingly off of each other with humor and heartbreak.

All three of these characters intertwine in a story that would be too confusing to really explain here. It involves a mysterious suicide of Lane’s sister and how it may or may not connect with a murder accidentally witnessed by Perry and Lockhart during a night of their training. Director Black, like Lane, loved pulp crime novels as a kid. Modeling his script after them, he even throws in a fictitious series of books reminiscent of those early literary years to parallel the events of his characters. Far from just a contemporary noir, however, the film is imbued with his unique brand of offbeat, sarcastic humor. What we get is a mode of storytelling with multiple personality disorder. This is satisfying at times and distracting at others. While undeniably original, Black’s combination seems to work against itself at certain moments where the humor and drama muddle together and detract from an ultimate emotional effect. At other times the ingredients work beautifully, creating comedic scenes bizarre yet inexplicably hysterical.

Breaking the fourth wall and having a character speak to the audience is not a new device. If not fathering the technique, Woody Allen brought it to the forefront in his body of work. My personal favorite uses were in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off where John Hughes had Ferris tell the story the way you’d hear it from a close friend; and Fight Club, where it works perfectly on both a technical level, capturing the novel’s first person narration, and a theoretical one because his character was just crazy enough to hold conversations with imaginary viewers. Black puts his own stamp on it here with Kiss Kiss, having his hapless protagonist guide the audience through the film’s plot. Lockhart sloppily runs through the events of the story, going back and forth in a disorganized manner about how he came to be invited to a certain party, how he finally remembers knowing a woman he meets at a bar and so forth. Far from eloquent, yet often amusing, his unorthodox narration fits his character and Black never attempts cleaning it up. This is a good thing as many films often have their protagonists deliver eloquent, insightful coverage in voice-over that doesn’t seem to be coming from the same characters we’re watching on-screen. Also, as the film is the fruition of a lifetime love affair Black had with antiquated, pulp serials, Lockhart’s colorful commentary is an effective homage to the hard-boiled, self aware detectives who recounted their own adventures in those forgotten paperbacks. The problem is that it sometimes gets, well, annoying. Then again, maybe this was Black’s intention as everyone who encounters Lockhart in the film seems to lose patience with him at some point or another.

While not nearly as bold, my favorite Black screenplay remains The Long Kiss Goodnight. I feel I need at least one more viewing of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang before a final opinion. For the moment, it is appreciated that this film stands out from the unexciting, predictable ones surrounding it so far this season. Black has made an original work that succeeds in a lot of the risks it takes. Not all of them, but a lot of them. More importantly, it’s fun to watch.