Inherent Vice

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Sex    Drug Use    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens January 9, 2014

Runs 148 minutes

Joaquin Phoenix is Larry "Doc" Sportello, a hippie Private Investigator in 1970's Los Angeles. When his old flame Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) shows up asking for his help, Doc is sucked into a plot involving putting her billionaire boyfriend in the loony bin, a crazy cartel of dentists - The Golden Fang, and an undercover subversive who just wants to get home to his wife and baby. Will Doc be able to work with his nemesis on the police force, Bigfoot (Josh Brolin) to help his old flame and solve the case?

I was glad that most reviews said that the atmosphere was the most important thing about this film and that it didn't really matter if you understood exactly what was going on...because this movie did not make a lot of sense. The 1970's atmosphere was right on the money. The hippie culture, the drugs, the free love...all of this transpires under a cloud of so much POT haze that my brain was feeling fuzzy. But, the acting was good and some of the loose ends are tied up at the end. Martin Short as head of the Golden Fang, the cartel of dentists was pretty funny! There are a lot of other stars in small parts like Reese Witherspoon, Eric Roberts, Maya Rudolph, etc... I didn't love this movie. You really have to be an art movie lover to want to sit through 2 1/2 hours of this drug-fueled crime caper. I would probably recommend that you go see something else.

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