Watching the Detectives (2007)

A film noir buff has his life turned on end by a femme fatale with a big adventure in mind.

Director:

Paul Soter

Writer:

Paul Soter

Stars:

Cillian Murphy, Lucy Liu, Jason Sudeikis

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Cillian Murphy	...	Neil
Lucy Liu	...	Violet
Jason Sudeikis	...	Jonathan
Michael Panes	...	Lucien
Callie Thorne	...	Marcia
Michael Yurchak	...	Buddy
Heather Burns	...	Denise
Mark Harelik	...	Detective Barloe
Ali Reza	...	Detective Lowenstein
Josh Pais	...	Andy
Brett Gelman	...	Glenn
Lonny Ross	...	Eager Customer
Paul Scheer	...	Annoying Customer
Richard Waddingham	...	Dennis - Bald Giant
J.T. O'Connor	...	Bald Creep

Storyline

Neil, a self proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur. Will Neil step up and embrace a life full of adventure or retreat back to his comfortable couch?

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Plot Keywords:

film geek | crazy woman | cult film | video store | video store clerk | 

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Taglines:

Sometimes love is stranger than fiction

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

While it did premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007, the film was unable to secure distribution for a theater release and so went straight to DVD.

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Goofs

Violet says she doesn't have a driver's license, but she still manages to drive a car to Neil's house. However, she may have told Neil that she didn't have a driver's license just to see how he'd react, just like almost everything else she did to him.

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Quotes

Denise: I bet you're gonna say next it's not you, it's me.
Neil: No, no, no, it's definitely you. Look, Denise, you're not enough like Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Denise: I don't know what that means!
Neil: She was so supportive, you know. She... she didn't make Paul Newman feel stupid. She went along with it.

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Connections

References Delicatessen (1991)

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Soundtracks

Zdd Electronic
Written by Michael Suby (as Michael Suby) (BMI)
Courtesy of S3 Music and Sound

User Reviews

Cillian Murphy proves his versatility and Liu is cute as a button in this enjoyable but extremely lightweight comedy.

The premise is not original, the acting is good but not exactly to write home about and technically it's not a great accomplishment. But is 'Watching The Detectives' entertaining? Definitely. Lucy Liu fits the role of the play-in-the-field perfectly (her role reminded me of her character in Lucky Number Slevin) and Cillian Murphy really proved to be a surprise in a comedy role. I've only seen his really intense, sometimes scary roles and couldn't believe he was going to be somewhat enjoyable as a light character but I was very wrong.

The antics they get in to are fairly original and there even were several laugh-out-loud moments, for instance when the waiter is just a little too comfortable with spraying a glass of water on a woman he doesn't know on the request of a guy he doesn't know. :-). And when Lucy starts talking about her weirdo ex-boyfriends me and my friends were in stitches. The following scenes are quite amusing too, as Cillian gets paranoid over every bald guy he sees.

I mentioned some of the more original stuff above but there's also formulaic stuff present. WTD is never intended to be a film we can take something away from, it's harmless escapism that ironically enough deals with escapism a lot of the time :-). The relatively negative connotations concerning movie freaks certainly left a bad taste in my mouth after viewing, after all isn't that the target audience of these small films? I somehow feel they didn't find the right balance between respecting film and commenting on over-obsessive film freaks. Also the fact that they can't differ people who watch sci-fi, anime and stuff from the people who enjoy quality movies (like the mentioned Seventh Seal or Casino). Seems a bit ignorant.

In the end, DTW is better than a lot of comedies but it never goes deep, we (us guys) just fall in love with Lucy Liu all over again and that's never a bad way to spend ninety minutes.

7.5/10

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 September 2008 (Russia)

Also Known As:

Watching the Detectives

Filming Locations:

Bayonne, New Jersey, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,006

Company Credits

Production Co:

Plum Pictures, Peace Arch Entertainment Group, Hart-Lunsford Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 90 min (DVD)

Color:

Black and White (one scene) Color