Overall Marlowe gets a 5.6 rating here on IMdB, and I for one wonder why. Admittedly, a mathematical 5 (as in 'out of 10) is 'average' - not good, not bad - yet broadly a 5.6 indicates for most that a film 'is not that good' and for them 6 would indicate it is 'average'. Fine, although that doesn't quite make sense, but if that's how it works, that's how it works. And that is unfair to Neil Jordan's Marlowe. It isn't at all 'bad' or even 'average'.
Yes, it does has its flaws, but then which film doesn't? At 70 Neeson is - some might argue - a tad old to portray Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, that is just the Marlowe of film convention: who says he has to be in his mid-30s or perhaps early 40s?
He is, after all, a fictional character, and if we can accept a woman playing Hamlet - and we can - Marlowe can be a tad older. We also don't object to 'Sir' Mick Jagger, as I write six months short of his 80th birthday, still prancing around on stage like some demented fawn, so let's keep it real, shall we?
Furthermore, Neeson might not be the sprightly chap he no doubt fondly remembers being but nor is he, and certainly not in Marlowe, and embarrassing old crock. More to the point he does convey 'Marlowe, the shrewd operator' rather well.
Jordan's Marlowe is not based on a Chandler story but one by the Irish novelist John Banville, in his 'crime writer' persona slumming it as 'Benjamin Black', and he does neatly come up with the entertaining convolutions in the Chandler originals. In other respects, too, Jordan's Marlowe is very much up to snuff.
It is not a Hollywood production, but an Irish one and Barcelona impersonated Marlowe's Los Angeles (or Bay City - couldn't find it on Google maps). Apart from Neeson, several other non-American actors - Ian Hart, Colm Meaney, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Seána Kerslake and Alan Cumming - are involved.
I am not a Yank and I'm prepared to stand corrected, but all of them (and whatever other 'foreigners' were involved) do themselves proud. My one gripe would be that Cummings role is a tad thin, but Cummings can't be blamed for that.
Oh, and Colm Meaney's cop (there are two in the film, the other is Ian Hart) is so obliquely introduced, for several minutes I wondered where the hell he turned up from. Finally, I assumed he and Hart were City/county police, though which was which I'm not too sure.
The cinematography is carried off with aplomb, the dialogue is neat (and avoids cliche well), the musical score is great (especially Jade Vincent's songs which might or might not be originals) and the whole feel of LA in 1939 is also convincing. So why all the carping? It's a tad puzzling.
For me this is a solid 6/10 but in view of the frankly nit-picking points made in other reviews, I shall try to redress the balance a little with a 7/10. That should indicate that not only is Marlowe not 'bad', it is, in its own way rather good. If you have not seen it and are looking through these reviews before deciding, go for it.
