The Fine Art of Stealing Fine Art
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola) rated R 98 min.
(Here’s one of the photos I was trying to include in last week’s posting.)
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): In my previous posting I noted with consternation that as I approached the end of the weekly task suddenly this “marvelous” (hmm, maybe I shouldn’t be sarcastic again) BlogSpot software was no longer allowing me to add pictures, even after I rebooted my photos application, BlogSpot, Safari, and the whole damn computer, so as a form of crisis management I used a couple of clips from Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman) instead, with concerns this blog would have to be structured in a radically different manner going forward (Dreadfully shorter; what's the problem, you say?). While mulling that over, though, I decided to move the cluster of a dozen songs that I’ve been finishing off these postings with for quite some time to be the final item in the Summary of Two Guys Reviews site (scroll waaay down to get to the songs), just to save myself some time each week in entering each of those links manually. Nevertheless, there’ll always be a reminder of the new location in each future posting in the Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting, far below as part of the sections under SHORT TAKES.
Fortunately (for me, maybe not you), the next day the problem mysteriously corrected itself, seems to be OK again as I'm now posting, so we’re back to the same old longer-than-necessary-flow although for this week I had to really stretch to find something on streaming (still avoiding theaters due to COVID-concerns*; as we get further into autumn that may continue to be the case, although I do have the latest Pfizer booster scheduled for a couple of weeks from now so maybe my courage will fire up like with all of the maskless people I’m now seeing in grocery stores) that I was intrigued enough by to watch (trying to keep up with various cable/streaming TV series as well as attending another live theatre performance [everyone in the audience masked, showed vaccination cards]—Berkeley [CA] Rep’s powerful the ripple, the wave that carried me home [Christina Jackson], about racism and its aftermath in the Midwest—also ate up a lot of potential-movie-viewing-time), so I finally settled on Confess, Fletch, which had gotten enough supportive reviews to be intriguing, plus I’m a big fan of Jon Hamm, starring in this comic-murder/theft-caper, so it becomes my sole focus. It’s amusing enough on its own, calls to mind those much-earlier-adventures of this investigative-reporter in 1980s movies with Chevy Chase, and might be to your liking, although I encourage you to read what I have to say about it before paying for a $19.99 rental from Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, or other platforms. Also, here are links for the schedule of the cable network, Turner Classic Movies, which gives you a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions and the JustWatch site which further offers up a wide selection of options for streaming rental or purchase. If you'd like to learn what reigned at the domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office last weekend, go here.
*If I weren’t in theatre-avoidance-mode I’m sure I’d have seen Amsterdam (another comic tale of a wrongful-murder-charge), given that it’s directed by David O. Russell, stars Christian Bale, Margo Robbie, John David Washington, Chris Rock, Zoe Saldaña, Mike Myers, Michael Shannon, Timothy Olyphant, Taylor Swift, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, and many others. However, I seem to be one of the few to potentially seek it out as the OCCU dumped on it (Rotten Tomatoes 33% positive reviews, Metacritic 47% average score), audiences generally stayed away too ($7.2 million in northern North America, $10.5 million worldwide), so I’ll likely wait for this one to slip into streaming mode whenever.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: Taking inspiration from Gregory Mcdonald’s cluster of Fletch novels (the one called Fletch came out in 1974, with Confess, Fletch in 1976; there are 6 more, the last being Fletch, Too in 1986, although there were 2 others in the Son of Fletch series [1993, 1994] and 4 in the spinoff Francis Xavier Flynn series, 1977-2003) about an undercover investigative reporter who’s in more of a comic mode than we’ve come to expect from detective/murder tales, this protagonist now appearing in 3 cinematic episodes of the franchise. In this one we open on a dead female body (later revealed to be Laurel Goodwin [Caitlin Zerra Rose]) lying in what’s also later revealed to a Boston townhouse, rented to Irwin “Fletch” Fletcher (Jon Hamm), who’s sent to MA by his new love in Rome, Angela De Grassi (Lorenza Izzo), moving quickly from interview subject by Fletch to his bed partner. She comes with complications, though, because not only has her billionaire father had a trove of high-priced, famous paintings stolen, he’s also been kidnapped with his takers demanding a Picasso from those stolen goods as ransom, although the artworks seems to now be in the possession (?) of art broker/Harvard professor Ronald Horan (Kyle MacLauchlan). Fletch heads to Boston, finds the dead woman upon arrival at his rental, calls the police to report it, yet oddly becomes the prime suspect for Inspector Detective Morris Monroe (Roy Wood Jr.) and Junior Detective (Griselda) Griz (Ayden Mayeri), the latter especially suspicious, so they tail him during the next few scenes, although when they put a tracker on his car he finds it, moves it to a bus, causing them to make a useless trip to Philadelphia. Using a fake name (a trademark of this character), Fletch meets separately with Horan and Tatiana Tasserly (Lucy Punch), ex-wife of the town house owner, Owen Tasserly (John Behlmann), a wealthy art dealer, who Fletch suspects is Laurel’s killer.
Other, more wacky characters soon emerge, Eve (Annie Mumolo), Owen’s very odd neighbor who furthers Fletch’s concerns about this guy, and the Countess De Grasso (Marcia Gay Harden), Angela’s stepmother, who’s convinced Fletch is the killer (at one point she verifies the title by telling him to “Confess, Fletch.”), then insists on moving into the town house with him although he counter-insists on separate sleeping accommodations (even at that, Angela quickly becomes furious because she’s convinced Stepmom’s behind Dad’s kidnapping so she’s off to Boston). With Monroe and Griz consistently on clandestine-watch outside, a large dinner party evolves at the town house with Fletch, Angela, the Countess, Eve, Owen, and Tatiana all barging in, followed by Lauren’s boyfriend, Bart Robinson (Eli Neslund), who tries to kill Fletch until he’s distracted by Eve’s dog; in the course of events, Fletch finds out Angela’s been in contact with Owen, then she abruptly leaves.
⇒Fletch follows her, finds she’s meeting Horan on his sailboat. He then provides some distraction with fireworks, sneaks onto Horan’s boat, finds the missing paintings, rows off with them. Ultimately, Fletch and Angela later end up on the boat with Horan, where we learn that Angela originally stole the paintings because she’s of the mind they belong to her; Horan’s double-crossing her, though, because he intends to sell the paintings (to pay off some massive debts), of course not until he finds them again; it also becomes clear in their dialogue he killed Laurel because, as a student in his class, she became too suspicious of what he was up to, so she was murdered with a set-up to pin her death on Fletch—yet in the meantime Horan’s going to kill Fletch and Angela, either by drowning later or shooting right now, until they’re saved in the nick of time by Griz who kills him from behind. As all of this is being wrapped up, we suddenly find Angela’s Dad (Count Clementi Arbogastes De Grassi [Robert Picardo]) was never kidnapped, instead was vacationing in the Canary Islands (?); he then gives the paintings to Fletch who keeps one, sends (from his undisclosed location in Latin America) one to Eve, another to Frank Jaffe (John Slattery) his former journalist boss whom Fletch has kept in contact with to sell him the story of these hijinks, and yet another to some street artists who helped him by painting his rental van colorfully so it wouldn’t be recognized by the cops. For Bart, Lauren’s boyfriend, he sends a generous check, then he rests up before his next adventure.⇐
So What? Given my early (at-times-senseless, as the decades rolled by with alternations of decent to deadly humor) enthusiasm for NBC TV’s Saturday Night Live (began in 1975, still going despite enormous cast changes over the years) I very likely saw the first Fletch (Michael Ritchie, 1985) with original SNL “Not Ready for Prime Time Player” Chevy Chase, although if I did I can’t remember anything about it; for that matter, I might have also seen Fletch Lives (Ritchie, 1989 [just an extension of the character, not based on a particular book]), but that’s even more dubious—although you’re welcome to get a taste of them from this trailer and this one—so I make no comparisons nor pronouncements about who was/is better in the role (although it’s clear Chase is the more physical comedian, so that consideration might play into your decision on this [insignificant] matter). Certainly, there’s no intention here to explain the almost-35-year-gap in the life of the main character between … Lives and Confess …, so just like James Bond seems to have closely-packed-sequential-adventures that allow his exploits to span 60 years with the character seemingly never growing much older (achieved by replacing the on-screen Bond every few years [with speculation continuing to grow as to who’ll be next as Daniel Craig’s exited the series following No Time to Die {Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2021; review in our October 14, 2021 posting}]), so this is just another year in the life of middle-aged-Fletch, despite this sequel taking extensively-extended-years to finally get into production, with significantly more time allotted to finally start shooting than even the original, which, like this one, went through many studio/casting options before the cameras were ultimately allowed to roll, with the final result, the original Fletch, getting reasonable critical and audience approval (77% positive RT reviews, $59.6 million gross worldwide [not bad for back then]; that 1989 sequel wasn’t so fortunate, with only a 37% positive RT response plus a $39.4 million global gross).
Considering the weak performance of Confess, Fletch (at least in terms of box-office results [a bit more on this just below] along with the likely-unreported-income from streaming rentals [info always difficult to get]) it’s hard to say if we’ll see anything further of this character in the near future (although little is as unpredictable as greenlighting projects in Hollywood), but if you’re willing to spend some cash to see this Fletch episode, you’ll find it active, frequently amusing (Hamm handles sarcasm well; I should take some lessons from him regarding my comments about BlogSpot)—yet, possibly, if you get lost in a couple of seemingly-important-plot-points as I did, although everything seems to be functionally settled by the end (which comes after 98-smoothly-flowing-minutes, so the timing feels right), you won’t care too much how airtight the story feels—so just be sure you’re ready to spend 20 bucks on something you can easily lose sight of once it’s over. In fact, if some of the interactions of Fletch with Detectives Monroe and Griz remind you of similar situations between Detroit Detective Alex Foley (Eddie Murphy) and L.A.-area-Detectives John Taggert (John Ashton) and Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) in the original Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest, 1984—just before the original Fletch), you might want to choose that one instead, available for free streaming on Paramount+ or $3.99 rental on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, or some other platforms.
Bottom Line Final Comments: Confess, Fletch opened in a limited number of theaters on September 16, 2022, seemingly to be followed by an upcoming debut on Showtime on 10/28/22; however, it’s already available via streaming on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, other platforms for a $19.99 rental. (I’d say if you have Showtime as part of a cable TV package you’d be best off waiting to see it then for no extra charge, as I can’t say it’s a solid investment otherwise—fun enough to watch, but if you can put that cash to some other use you might well be happier.) The CCAL’s somewhat more supportive than me, though, with the Rotten Tomatoes-surveyed-critics giving it a (generous) cluster of 85% positive reviews (but, remember, whoever at RT makes the +/- decisions based on what the critics write often to me seems quite willing to overlook a lot of hesitations while determining a review rates a ripe red tomato rather than a green splat), although the folks contributing to Metacritic are more in line with me this time (unlike their frequent dour stance on a lot of movies, frequently more restrained than mine) with a 66% average score—compared to my 60% with 3 out of 5 stars. (Of the last 20 releases both they and I have reviewed this year only 5 of them have scored at the MC level of 70 or better: Prey [Dan Trachtenberg; review in our August 10, 2022 posting—they liked it better than I did], Resurrection [Andrew Semans; review in our August 18, 2022 posting], Official Competition [Gastón Duprat, Mariano Cohn; review in our August 31, 2022 posting], Nope [Jordan Poole; review in our September 15, 2022 posting], and Sidney [Reginald Hudlin; review on our September 28, 2022 posting—me: 4 stars of 5 vs. their 70%; I've been higher on 12 of those arbitrary 20 {like in weird baseball stats: "Since August 19 the best AL record is ..."}].)
As for that theatrical presence, Confess, Fletch made only about $539 thousand in its domestic run (already off the charts after only 3 weeks at Box Office Mojo), seemingly hasn’t been released internationally, with about $267 thousand of that take coming on its opening weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed Jon Hamm (as I have in anything I’ve seen him in, including skits on SNL, along with, of course, his masterful work as duplicitous Don Draper on AMC TV’s Mad Men [2007-’15, streaming on AMC+; nice to see Slattery from that series here briefly also]), find him to be an accomplished comedy actor. Hamm has supportive things to say about Chase as the originator of this role (4:19 video; as well as director Mottola briefly noting the possibility of another episode in the screen-life of Fletch, but that may be prematurely-optimistic). Well, that’s enough chatter about a 3 stars-movie, so explore it if you wish or maybe I’ll have something of more repute for you to consider next week. In the meantime, here’s my normal review-wrapup-tactic of a Musical Metaphor, stretching things a bit this time (just as Confess … stretches it’s narrative elements in many directions to achieve a story, then come to closure) with Patsy Cline’s “Who Can I Count On” (from her 1964 album A Portrait of Patsy Cline) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Wicrcdr7o (originally the B-side of her big 1961 hit, Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” “…Count On” was written by Sammy Masters) because, given the circumstances in this story, Fletch could easily feel—especially about Angela but most of the rest of his fellow-characters as well—that “Who can I count on, if I can’t count on you? / I never counted on you making me blue […] Your love was sweet and gentle at the start / But now I feel that I can’t go on living / If living means that we must live apart,” except for the changed-attitude of Detective Griz, who comes around nicely when she’s most needed, due to clues revealed by those ongoing stakeouts when she spent many a lonely night on duty, hoping to put Fletch away for good.
SHORT TAKES
That’s all for my critical commentary this week (which usually reminds me of some parting lyrics from Pink Floyd’s "Time": “The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say,” or maybe R.E.M. knows me even better [from "Losing My Religion"]: “Oh no, I’ve said too much / I haven’t said enough”), but whether you agree with any of that stuff or not I’ll offer you one more opportunity to be in unity with an attitude that would benefit all of us, James Taylor’s "Shower the People" (on his 1976 In the Pocket album), because we should “Shower the people you love with love / Show them the way that you feel / Things are gonna be much better/ If you only will.” We’re now sailing through divisive times; it could be a smoother ride if we’d only help each other a bit more.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (just scroll down to the bottom of this Summary page to see some additional info about your crazy critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list). Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage. If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page. We always appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it!
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Here’s more information about Confess, Fletch:
https://www.miramax.com/movie/confess-fletch/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up2fymextps (6:22 interview with actor Jon Hamm) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6xLRY_bNCM (5:37 interview with Hamm and director
Greg Mottola)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/confess_fletch
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/confess-fletch
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