Fritz Brown is an ex-LAPD, recovering alcoholic who now splits his time repossessing cars for a used car lot and staffing his one-man private detective agency. When a filthy caddie named Freddy "Fat Dog" Baker wanders into Fritz's office one day, flashing a wad of cash, Fritz is hired to follow Fat Dog's kid sister Jane, who is holed up with a Beverly Hills sugar daddy named Sol Kupferman. Kupferman is a 70 year-old bag man for the mob, and Fat Dog claims that "Solly K" is up to something evil that may harm Jane. The trail leads Fritz to an encounter with his dark past in the person of Haywood Cathcart, current head of LAPD internal affairs and the person who kicked Fritz off the police force.
Reviews
It is definitely Michael Rooker who carries this film with his likable working-man persona.He really manages to show the heart and humanity under his character's rough exterior and when he needs to be menacing he delivers the goods;the scene where he takes a pair of brass knuckles to a creep in order to beat some information out of him is worth the price of admission alone. He is well-served by a snappy script that captures the gritty funk of Ellroy's writing. Capable direction by Jason Freeland keeps things moving nicely. There are excellent character turns by Will Sasso, Brad Dourif,and Barry Newman. And Harold Gould takes a bow as a slimy mobster.I am surprised this isn't more celebrated. Good show, all around.
Brown's Requiem is, in my opinion, modern day Film Noir at its best. Jason Freeland's obvious understanding of James Ellroy's notoriously clever dialogue paved the way for one of the best adaptations I've ever seen. The casting choices were right on and this was one of the few crime stories where I didn't guess the ending after the first half hour. It definitely kept me on my toes. Well Done!
Really really a good film. I loved the gutsy choices this director made. This is a movie no one should miss. I'm a big fan of James Ellroy and truly believe that Jason Freeland's filmic rendition of this novel is fabulous. If you loved LA Confidential, you'll love this movie.
First I want to say that I love James Ellroy. You will certainly find L.A. Confidential in my top 10 for best movies of the 90's.So I really looked forward to this movie, but it really disappointed me. The story concentrates the most on the main character, here played by a decent B-movie actor: Michael Rooker. Unfortunately, he just can't handle with his personage. The film could have greater, with a lesser depressing tone, a bit more tempo and a better written adaptation. The actual crime story is hard to follow and is told here on a very uninteresting way.I saw this in the movie theatre, but I think this should have been going directly on video. I can almost certainly say that almost every Ellroy fan will be disappointed. A shame, a pity, just forget about it...hopefully the next Ellroy film will be better. The first thing I wanted to do after seeing this film, was watching L.A. Confidential again...