Susan Granger’s review of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (Warner Bros.)
Lethally funny, this satirical mystery thriller unfolds like a Raymond Chandler film noir, with episodic chapters titled “Trouble Is My Business,” “Little Sister” and “Farewell My Lovely.”
Introduced in a slick title sequence, Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a bumbling, naive New York thief who’s mistaken for an actor and sent to L.A., where he’s supposed to learn how to play a detective under the tutelage of an openly gay gumshoe called “Gay Perry” (Val Kilmer).
At a TinselTown poolside Christmas party, populated by tarts and tough guys, Harry meets Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), a flirtatious pulp fiction aficionado who turns out to have been his childhood playmate back in Indiana. It’s destiny! The kiss kiss might happen if it weren’t for the cads, criminals and corpses that keep turning up as a result of the convoluted bang bang, which involves the incriminating kidnap killing of a socialite. So whodunit?
As a first-time director, screenwriter Shane Black (“Lethal Weapon,” “The Last Boy Scout”) incorporates the buddy movie with classic film noir, an innovative concept enhanced by Michael Barrett’s captivating cinematography and Aaron Osborne’s nostalgic production design. Black’s hip, sophisticated dialogue, often poking familiar fun at both the detective genre and the film industry, is laugh-out-loud entertaining, incorporating ‘inside’ humor like Downey’s being “mildly whacked on Demerol.” Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer play off one another like the groovy pros they are. Problem is: Downey looks so much older than dewy Michelle Monaghan that it’s hard to believe that duo, even as he narrates. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is an amusing, cynical 7, wryly playing murder for laughs.
