‘Inherent Vice’ is a weird, trippy movie that meanders to its end

Posted on January 23, 2015

By MARK VIOLA

I’ve reviewed hundreds of movies over the past eight years or so, but I don’t think I’ve ever tried to review a movie quite like “Inherent Vice.”

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (“Boogie Nights,” “There Will Be Blood”) and based on the novel by Thomas Pynchon, the film is a weird, trippy journey following the misadventures of a drug-addled private investigator trying to find out who may or may not have kidnapped a real estate magnate, who just happens to be dating his old flame, who just happens to have also gone missing. Confused yet? His journey will ultimately involve Neo-Nazis, cults, the FBI, overzealous police detectives, explicitly decorated neckties, a couple of baseball bats and a cartel of dentists.

“Inherent Vice” breaks nearly every rule of storytelling, meandering around seemingly aimlessly for two and a half hours before arriving at a conclusion that only really wraps up one of its multiple plot threads before literally driving into the sunset.

At its base, the story is a crime mystery, and it jumps from one convenient development to the next in a path that would make no sense in a different movie, but here, with the film’s laid back approach–in which everything has the haze of dope swirling around the edges–it all works.

About 45 minutes into the movie–by which time two people in the showing I was in had already left the theater–I realized that there was not going to be a coherent conclusion to this story, and the film wasn’t even going to try. Because that’s not really the point. This movie is all about the journey, and not the destination. And thanks to Anderson, who also wrote the script adapting Pynchon’s novel for the screen, it is a fun, mind-trip of a ride.

If you’re looking for a straight-forward mystery tale with a clear beginning, middle and end, “Inherent Vice” is not for you. But if you’re looking for something a little trippy, a little whimsical and quite funny, just maybe this could be for you. I make no guarantees. (I told you this was going to be an odd movie to review.)

The film is rated R for drug use throughout, sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some violence.

(This is a shortened version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

 

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