Sat 12 Jun 2021
TWILIGHT. Paramount Pictures, 1998. Paul Newman (PI Harry Ross), Susan Sarandon, Gene Hackman, Reese Witherspoon, Stockard Channing, James Garner, Giancarlo Esposito, Liev Schreiber, Margo Martindale. Written by Robert Benton & Richard Russo. Director: Robert Benton.
After an unfortunate incident in picking up a runaway daughter in Mexico (he is shot in the upper thigh, but rumor has is that the shot was higher), PI Harry Ross goes into semi-retirement working exclusively with the girl’s parents as a live-in troubleshooter and jack of all trades. The parents (Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon) are (or were) movie stars of an earlier era, and the most recent job Harry must do for Jack Ames smells lot like a blackmail payment to him.
Which of course it is, and Harry suspects – and rightly so – that it has something to do with the disappearance of Catherine Ames husband just before she married Jack. It turns out that a lot of water assumed to have gone under bridge has not. It has been backed up for nearly twenty years, and Harry is right in the way when the dam finally bursts.
In spite of the super superb cast, the movie did not do well at the box office. (Wikipedia describes it as a bomb.) This may be because it’s somewhat derivative of a lot of other PI movies you may yourself have seen, and it’s slow moving without a lot of action. What it does have, is nudity, swear words, smoking, gunplay, dead bodies, terrific dialogue, beautiful photography, and of course Paul Newman, and on the basis of the last three (and in spite of the first three) I have no hesitation in recommending the movie to you.
June 12th, 2021 at 9:53 pm
As Maurice Chevalier sang in Gigi, this thing was dull as pain, despite the cast and interesting situation, someone blew it.
June 12th, 2021 at 10:51 pm
More than THE DROWNING POOL this was the sequel HARPER deserved and never got, an almost pitch perfect private eye film with Newman well matched by Hackman, Sarandon, Channing, Witherspoon, and Garner.
I can’t think of many late era private eye films anywhere near this good or as elgaic.
It’s the best Ross Macdonald movie not based on a Ross Macdonald book ever made.
June 12th, 2021 at 11:12 pm
More movie goers were of the same mind as you, Barry, than they were of David. I’m not quite as enthusiastic about it as you, though, David, but I found at least 95% of it very easy to go down.
June 13th, 2021 at 1:10 am
One of my favorite actors as I’m sure is a common sentiment among many other movie-buffs besides myself. I also admire everything I’ve heard about the guy as a citizen and fellow human-being.
Unhappily, I’ve never been able to cotton to his movies after a certain point in his career. They just didn’t look or feel the same.
The last Newman flick I enjoyed (as he started to mature) was ‘Fort Apache, the Bronx’ which I liked very much.
My favorite Paul Newman detective flicks remains: ‘Harper’ (screenplay by W. Goldman).
But also huge fondness for a film I rarely ever see talked about: ‘The Drowning Pool’. With Tony Franciosa, Richard Jaeckal, Andy Robinson. Just love that cast and that New Orleans setting.
Much to savor in the source material for both these two cases; which you all know a lot better than I do.
June 13th, 2021 at 7:17 am
A sentiment shared, I’m sure, by PI movie fans everywhere. TWILIGHT is to me, in spite of its weaknesses, a fitting end to a near perfect trilogy.
June 13th, 2021 at 2:19 pm
Regardless its weaknesses I like it very much and whenever its on tv I watch it. I always regretted not having seen it during its original cinema run in 1998. Despite the cast I just missed it.