This is a near-future Noir that's very true to it's Golden Age antecedents. If you like the genre, it's worthwhile. Not original by any means, but that's not the intention: the opposite. Noir has it's tested format and tropes to which the movie conforms faithfully, and it still works. The lonely, jaded detective; the femme fatale; the brutish yet somewhat sympathetic antagonist; the cynical but honest friend: all very well cast, particularly Thandiwe Newton who I found very reminiscent of a Thelma Ritter in this. What this captures of the old movies that many comparable films don't is the sentimentality, and I think it eventually succeeds in it's central aim of generating a wistful atmosphere, though it's no "Out of the Past".
I wanted to see what the director had done with a favourite genre, and I apreciated it - it was to my taste.
I wanted to see what the director had done with a favourite genre, and I apreciated it - it was to my taste.