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Twilight (1998)

Rate: 3
Viewed: 5/26

5/26: Is there such a genre as snore noir?

Yep, and I present you Twilight as the most cogent example. Hollywood used to produce a lot of crap back in the 70's, putting me to sleep because the mysteries made no sense. Billy Sullivan is killed? Who cares? When I saw the house that James Garner's character was living in that's replete with a million-dollar panoramic view of Los Angeles, I was like, "No way! Not on a retired cop's salary." Unbeknownst to me, that became the biggest clue down the road.

Sure, the all-star cast is incredible: Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, James Garner, Susan Sarandon, M. Emmet Walsh, Stockard Channing, Giancarlo Esposito, Liev Schreiber, and the naked Reese Witherspoon. But it doesn't matter if the story fails to capture my interest. I think everybody involved decided to do the film based on how well the lines sounded.

Why name Paul Newman's character Harry Ross? This film feels like third part of the Lew Harper franchise, but Harper and The Drowning Pool are already terrible. When it comes to neo-noir, Paul Newman either stinks at choosing scripts or isn't a right fit. Another reason is the success of Nobody's Fool. He and Robert Benton thought it would happen again. Well, they were dead wrong.

All in all, Twilight sounds appropriate as far as Paul Newman's acting career is concerned.

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