Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name hits cinemas this week and it has caused quite the stir. The Guardian has reported mass walk outs with audiences accusing the film of “being boring and not making any sense”. However, the film has found its defenders with some US critics hailing it as a postmodern masterpiece. I would argue that both and neither camps are correct.
The plot, as much as the film can be described to have one, centres on Larry “Doc” Sportello (played by Joaquin Phoenix) a private investigator and marijuana enthusiast living in California in the early 1970s. One day Doc’s ex-girlfriend, Sasha, visits him and enlists his help in order to prevent the kidnapping of her new partner by his ex-wife and her lover (yes that is best way to describe the plot). This leads to a series of meetings with a variety of colourful characters and Doc taking one new case after another, with no seeming connection to each other.
The essential problem with Inherent Vice is that is still among the first wave of Hollywood movies to really attempt to successfully adapt the postmodernist American novel. While its attempts to bring this genre to big screen are very admirable, the film’s attempts to adapt Pynchon’s novel post structuralist style ends up giving the film a meandering and unengaging feel. Each scene in the film feeling disconnected from the last and like it could and should be the last scene in the movie. It’s not hard to see why many have walked from Inherent Vice.
However, the performances are good, with Josh Brolin and Reese Witherspoon especially showing their comedic chops as a LAPD detective and District Attorney respectively. Joaquin Phoenix as always finds a way to make a morally ambiguous character entertaining and sympathetic. The score, set and costume are impressive, giving a real feeling of an end of an era as the 1960s slip away into the 1970s. Fans of Pynchon’s novel, who are more acclimatised to the mode of address, will likely find a great deal to love about this adaptation also.
Inherent Vice is well worth seeing if you’re a fan of Thomas Pynchon’s or indeed if you’re a fan of director Paul Thomas Anderson. It is certainly challenging and interesting cinema. But, the film does suffer from growing pains when trying to find a workable approach to the type of novel that Pynchon’s Inherent Vice is. As such, this film will not be for everyone. But, I suspect a cult following is in Doc’s future.
Inherent Vice is showing at FACT now. Click here to view times.
Faye Mitchell
