Gotham

Gotham usually gets confused with that city-with-a-comic-book-superhero in it. This is a horrible thing for such a terrific movie. It has nothing to do with that comic book! If you love film noir, and can actually FIND this movie(also known as "The Dead Can't Lie")-probably only on a VHS, then you'll be sorry if you DON'T get it!

I love this film because there are so many new things to find each time I watch it. It is a show about a Private Eye who is down on his luck until a man offers him an assignment no one else will take. His job is to find this man's ex-wife, who is continuously stalking him, and try to get her to cease and desist. The problem? She has been dead for 10 years! NO- this isn't some cheesy ghost story,and this is no comedy! It really sucks you in, and leaves you wanting to watch it again. I found Gotham to be an eerie yet believable film which still haunts me every time!!

I really enjoy this quirky, sensual film, but even after several viewings, I am still a bit confused about the plot. It's not one of those bizarre films where you shake your head and say "what?", but rather one that keeps you going up and down different alleyways. Tommy Lee Jones is very sexy and perfectly cast as the rough and tumble private eye hired to get a man's dead wife off his trail. But, is the wife really dead? What is fantasy and what is reality? Virginia Madsen is drop dead gorgeous, no pun intended. She and Tommy Lee Jones have a very hot sexual chemistry between them. This is the only movie with the formidable Mr. Jones that I have seen him engaged in a passionate, nude love scene. This alone is worth renting the movie. It's not great, but it's very old-fashioned, gritty film noir, and extremely sexy, and definitely not predictable.

I thought the storyline was provocative, and the writing was good but not superlative (Kevin Jarre is a wonderful writer, and I'm willing to bet the script would have been lots better if the director had left it alone.) Tommy Lee Jones was fantastic, as usual- his leading lady was a beautiful woman but a mediocre actress. Liked the Russian Orthodox priest, too; a fun addition. Really liked the lady singer doing 'Where Or When' in a club where the couple met. 'Danny Boy' was lovely, as well, as was the Latin piece the leading lady danced on the roof to. Fun movie to critique and "improve" in your mind as you're watching it. the soap opera crowd would probably love it without reservation. The meticulous might very well cringe. All and all very entertaining.

How do you stop your dead wife from harassing you? Hire a good detective who can tell her to stop. Tommy Lees Jones portrays a down on his luck gumshoe is approached by a man who is being followed by his dead wife. Jones figures if the man is crazy enough to offer his money, he's just crazy enough to help him. Is she dead? Check the refrigerator, take a cruise but stay out of the church. This made-for-tv film keeps you going, wondering just who is seeing things. Don't close your eyes for too long or you just might miss something. If you like a good mystery, this one is a sleeper-keeper. You might have to look on the back shelf of the video store to find it but however it's worth the search. A great movie for a rainy weekend afternoon.

I first saw Gotham in 1989 and then in 2001 and it stood up well: Gotham is on the one hand an ironic tribute to hard-boiled detective movies, but it chooses to keep its irony under the surface rather than over-the-top, telling a susupenseful and carefully unfolded story with real twists and turns even as it tosses the occasional wink taht we've seen the set-pieces before. There is real suspense as we watch Tommy Lee Jones get in way over his head--he takes it well enough when he discovers, early on, that he is indeed dealing with a malicious ghost--but from there on he is forced to watch with his own investigators detatchemht as he fall in love with this ghost, going down hill physically and every other way step by step--at the end, he is faced with a battle for his soul as serious as Sam Spades faces at the end of "Maltese Falcon"--and, even at the end, the wry humor returns to wrap it all nicely up. By the way--keep yuour eye out for spooky oddities at ther corner of your vision--they are there!