Marlowe is a new crime/mystery movie that came out in theaters February 15. It stars Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming. The plot of the movie centers around a Mrs. Cavendish (Diane Kruger) who hires Detective Marlowe (Liam Neeson) to locate her secret lover who has disappeared. 

I decided to give this movie a ⅖ stars rating. I liked the 1930’s Los Angeles feel of the movie more than anything, but that was really the only thing keeping me interested in the movie. I thought the settings and the fashion were cool, though it doesn’t say much for the movie if the main things I was focusing on were the characters’ outfits and hair. The movie was honestly pretty slow, and it was hard to pay attention to what was happening. It had a bit of action, but I was hoping that there would be a bit more to keep me entertained; and most of the action that did happen wasn’t necessarily exciting. 

Adding to the slowness of the movie was the characters needing to smoke or drink every 10 minutes. I mean I know smoking was very popular then, but I don’t want to see a character lighting up every minute rather than solving a mystery. Someone who I saw the movie with also noted how the 1930’s feel felt a bit forced, hence the smoking and drinking constantly. The acting also felt forced at certain points because they wanted it to be 1930’s dramatic, when it didn’t necessarily make sense to be suddenly dramatic during certain scenes. 

The biggest disappointment of the movie though was that the mystery was hard to follow. I was able to understand some of it, but was still left confused on a lot of plot points. I eventually gave up trying to understand about half way through the movie and hoped it would be explained to me after. I had hoped it would be kind of like a Knives Out mystery where everything clicks and makes sense in the end, but the ending just left me with even more unanswered questions. 

In the end, I decided to give it a ⅖ because the overall plot was bad, but I did like the vintage atmosphere of the settings and wardrobes.