ross_tm

This is a very dark series, and I don't mean in the sense of noir. At least 50% of the shots are at night, in the dark, and pretty much invisible on any normal screen. Evidently the producers couldn't afford lights for the sets. As a result, it is very much like an old-time radio play, and I have to assume that was intentional. Surprisingly, that works OK.

I'm a huge Hammett fan, and usually find the screen adaptations lacking. This one is not based on an actual Hammett book, so I didn't have high expectations for it, but possibly for that reason I enjoyed it very much. Owen's Spade is a little more sophisticated than the one we're used to, and he's a brilliant actor, so is riveting every time he's on the screen, which is pretty much every scene. The rest of the cast is fine as well, especially newcomer Cara Bossom and the luminous Chiara Mastroianni.

The story is ultimately a little implausible, especially the ending, but many of the Continental Op stories were implausible in very much the same way, so the writers are being pretty true to Hammett's legacy.

This is well worth watching if you enjoy stylish, well-acted noir. And if you have a TV or projector where you can crank the brightness up to 12; 11 isn't good enough.

As an old boomer guy I'm not really in the demographic for this movie, and I put it on for background noise while doing something else. I didn't expect it to begin with people battling zombies in a shopping mall! (OK, not real zombies, but still...) I ended up giving the movie 90% attention throughout, instead of the 15% I'd originally planned. It has an endearing main character, some delightfully quirky bits (the zombies, the crab and puffer fish, lawnchair man,...), and a plot which was totally predictable but still left open some questions about how it was going to unroll. Another director could have given the movie a screwball pace and tone, or made it cloyingly sweet, but that would have been a bad choice. They maybe veered a little to far in the 'sedate' direction for this one, but it works.

In 1999 there was another romantic comedy with a crab, Simply Irresistible (with Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Patricia Clarkson). If you enjoyed that movie, I would say this one has a very similar overall flavor...though they are very different movies, and the acting in that one was overall far far better.