It's funny to hear about the mundane lives Hollywood starlets lead before getting their big breaks. Some wait tables, others do menial office jobs, and some are just really dumb criminals who happen to wander into a casting session when they're trying to flee the scene of a botched robbery.
Such is the case of Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), one of those unfortunate human beings who always is in the wrong place at the worst possible time. Just like most Hollywood A-listers, Harry started out as a petty thief in New York City who was whisked off to Tinsel Town when he stumbled into the audition room of a major motion picture and unwittingly passed his screen test with flying colors.
Saddled with the role of a streetwise cop, Harry is paired with a practicing Hollywood P.I. (Val Kilmer) to do research for the movie. In Harry's first night shadowing his assigned mentor, the mismatched duo witnesses a simple murder that quickly escalates into a tangled web of sex, lies and silicon. The subsequent adventure throws Harry into contact with his long-lost childhood sweetheart Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), a doe-eyed bumpkin who has fled an abusive father to seek fame and fortune in the city she has read about in cheap dime store novels.
It might sound ridiculous, but writer/director Shane Black, the same man who brought us substance-less thrillers "Lethal Weapon" (1987) and "The Last Boy Scout" (1991), weaves such a clever storyline around this absurd premise that the result is nothing short of movie marvel. Part comedy, part murder mystery, part love story, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" delivers a shocking jolt of pure, unadulterated entertainment.
Leading the cast as the hapless Harry, Downey Jr. is a guy who can identify with his character's initially aimless existence. Since exploding onto the film scene as part of the famed '80s Brat Pack, drug problems and a number of unfortunate role choices (say, 1998's "U.S. Marshals") have somewhat derailed his career. The one-two punch of his roles in "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" will doubtlessly rocket him right back into the limelight.
This film showcases the best of Downey Jr.'s talent. His Harry is a twitchy, neurotic, soulful character - at once the embodiment of thirty-something ennui and yet refreshingly original.
Of course, Batman is nothing without his Robin. If critics thought Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson were a pleasant surprise, wait until they see Downey Jr. and Kilmer. Whoever decided to gamble on not one, but two B-list actors past their primes is going to be a very rich man - Kilmer plays the perfect straight man to Downey's Jr.'s basket case.
Together, their chemistry elevates comic dialogue to an art form, but alone, Kilmer's grizzled P.I., affectionately dubbed "Gay" Perry for his ironically homosexual orientation, is a skilled character study deserving of its own merits. A far cry from the flamboyant archetypes that normally populate Hollywood's portrayals of itself, Perry is tough, macho and a really snappy dresser.
The only weak link in the cast is the relatively inexperienced Michelle Monaghan as Harry's syrupy-sweet love interest, the aptly named Harmony Faith. Harmony is another layered role that requires an actor to skillfully plumb the character's depths. Monaghan isn't quite up to the challenge. Her Midwestern niavete is too over-the-top at times, and comically she is outmatched by Downey Jr.
But Monaghan's flaws are neutralized by Black's outstanding script. Juxtaposing humor and darker undertones, Black seeks to comment on the artificiality of the Hollywood scene without being preachy or moralizing. Political correctness is sacrificed on the altar of entertainment, and the resulting freedom allows for extended comic vignettes of unprecedented subject matter, such as one where Harry inadvertently urinates on a corpse. Comedy doesn't get much better than that.
Directorially, Black poses a double-threat. A tastefully employed blue filter lends an air of plasticity and unreality to the movie that supplements Black's commentary on superficiality. He uses voice-over narrations - typically a hokey attempt at sentimentality - to give Downey Jr. the opportunity to editorialize on the film as though he were not actually involved in the action, thus reinforcing the concept of falsity.
Black's complete disregard for gray middle ground can get a little carried away. The humor is razor-sharp, the violence is nauseating and the depravity of the human race can be downright unsettling at times. All this contributes nicely to Black's intended tone of self-satirizing extremism, but every once in awhile, the film tiptoes dangerously close to the gaudy stereotypes it's trying to mock.
But, hey, that's showbiz, baby.
