Other Titles • Mulholland Falls (1996) • Nach eigenen Regeln (1996)
Synopses for Mulholland Falls (1996)
1.
Too much surface. Director Lee (The Edge) Tomahori's noir story serves as a McGuffin to its ripe style. Amid secret agendas and unspeakable acts onscreen you stare at the fall of light across old cops' desks. Musing on super-8 footage of naked Jennifer Connelly, your mind wanders. Ah, yes, an allusion to the opening shots of Chinatown. Roman Polanski's grand reinvocation of the dark intuitions of 1940s noir is there, too, in the sumptuous look, the plump list of stars (Nick Nolte, Michael Madsen, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich), and the swoony, bittersweet soundtrack. The zigzags of the story that bring together two cheating husbands, one pneumatic babe, and (somehow) homosexuality waywardly recall The Big Sleep. The Atomic Energy Commission subplot feels like an homage to Kiss Me Deadly. With so many other movies to please, by the middle of the film it's clear that the story isn't going to thicken, that for all the amperage in Nolte's performance, for all the male rage in Michael Madsen and Chazz Palminteri, the hints of sexual malfeasance aren't going much past Nolte's domestic guilt about his affair with Connelly. And yet there are rich things. Tracing a path from his girlfriend to the head of the Commission (Malkovich), Nolte listens, hat in hand, to a purring existential science lecture about the invisible world of atoms. "Yeah," Nolte growls, "well, I see too much." Would that the filmmakers had let us see more. --Lyall Bush
2.
Based on a real-life team of LAPD cops known as the "Hat Squad" (for their penchant for fancy headgear), "Mulholland Falls" is set in the 1950s and follows the exploits of four macho detectives. Led by Max Hoover, the dicks investigate the death of young, beautiful Allison Pond, with whom the married Max recently had an affair. The trail leads to a number of higher-ups in the military, forcing a nervous J. Edgar Hoover to apply pressure on them to stay off the case. Making matters worse are some steamy home movies featuring Max and Allison -- that mysteriously end up in the hands of Max's wife...
3.
An incredible all-star cast delivers stirring performances in this brilliant, high-powered crime thriller electrified by hard-hitting action, forbidden passion and shocking intrigue.
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