I’ve said a number of times in the past few years how my opinion about L.A. Confidential has shifted downwards. I loved it in 1997, but everytime I watch it now, I notice even more how clunky it is. It seems to me there’s been a lot of post-production tinkering on this movie, a lot of pretty bad ADR, probably to clarify plot points etc. I may be wrong, but it’s the only explanation I can muster. Kim Basinger won the Oscar for her performance here, but she’s practically the epitome of all this clunkiness, her speech so stunted and awkward, really just a pretty face, though perhaps that’s the point: if the intention really was to make a movie in the old-style, then I guess it succeeds; but that doesn’t make it easier or more enjoyable to watch.

I still can’t put my objection into words adequately, only to say I find the movie … clunky. But I do keep watching it whenever the chance arises. Maybe it’s the great production design, or Jerry Goldsmith’s masterful score, or those stand-out scenes (“She is Lana Turner,” Vincennes’ death, eg), that keep me coming back.

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