The trailer for Inherent Vice made it seem that this movie would be a fun, quirky (albeit a little dark) movie with a fantastic cast. At the end of the film, the only word I really came up with, though, was “bizarre.” And bizarre is too far from quirky for me.
Not that the movie had no great qualities. Sure, Joaquin Phoenix delivered an excellent performance (even if I didn’t completely understand his character). For example, this was a completely different person than, for example, the character he played in Her. And I suppose, having read just a wee bit on the adaptation process of this book, maybe the film does earn its Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay (but I don’t think it can win). (And yes, the costumes are fantastic! But I don’t watch all of those nominees, so I cannot compare to the others.)
So it’s not a bad movie. But it does go on too long. And it winds into nooks and crannies in a way that lost me. (My movie companion commented on the overplay of the drug culture in the movie and remarked that maybe we missed things, not being in that. I’m not so sure about that; I think it was just odd.)
As much as I wanted this to be better (it has won a few top ten film awards for the year), for me, it just wasn’t. At least I’m not alone: having just now looked up its nominations, I had to giggle as one award it won was “Movie You Wanted to Love, But Just Couldn’t.”
Yes, bizarre. Not bad. But not in my top ten of the year.