There's a lot of intrigue in this later film noir that really grabs you but half an hour in, like many modern film noir, becomes a convoluted mess that takes quite a while to get back on track. Melanie Griffith is an actress who can either make me root for her ("Working Girl") or annoy me, but here, her character goes through far too many transitions and twists that you never really get the full idea of she's your typical femme fatale, a dangerous psychopath or an abused woman who has just had enough. She's surrounded by a decent male cast, most notably Sean Bean as the sap taken in by her...or is it vice versa? Tommy Lee Jones and Sting represent the other men, and as good as they are, it's only Bean who comes off as completely unscathed.
So what you don't get from the main characters you do get from some of the sleazier supporting characters, which ultimately means that nobody is worth trusting. The Newcastle England setting is gorgeous with its bridges and waterways, and the jazzy music score is a character all it's own. Technically, this is a 10/10, but to be a genuinely good film, you need a script that doesn't require a road map and if the leads are amoral, the desire to see them pay for their sins yet be intrigued to see how far they'll go. The atmosphere of jazz clubs and the avant garde way it is presented helped raise the rating for me because I found it fascinating, and had l not known better, I'd think this was in New Orleans or Paris because on that aspect, this is le jazz hot.
So what you don't get from the main characters you do get from some of the sleazier supporting characters, which ultimately means that nobody is worth trusting. The Newcastle England setting is gorgeous with its bridges and waterways, and the jazzy music score is a character all it's own. Technically, this is a 10/10, but to be a genuinely good film, you need a script that doesn't require a road map and if the leads are amoral, the desire to see them pay for their sins yet be intrigued to see how far they'll go. The atmosphere of jazz clubs and the avant garde way it is presented helped raise the rating for me because I found it fascinating, and had l not known better, I'd think this was in New Orleans or Paris because on that aspect, this is le jazz hot.