Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin, Simon Baker, Matt McCoy
Released just a few years after Rodney King and the OJ Simpson murder trial, L.A. Confidential gives us a police department at a crossroads. It is 1953. Hollywood is quickly encroaching on how the police does its business. Sensationalism replaces journalism in gossip rags like the one written by Sid Hudgens (DeVito), who tips off cops about actors engaging in illicit activity so the cop can make the high-profile arrest and Hudgens can plaster the story on the cover of his magazine ironically titled Hush-Hush.
The detective Sid most often tips off is Sgt. Jack Vincennes (Spacey), a technical advisor on a Dragnet-like television show; a job he definitely enjoys more than being a detective. Vincennes approaches his day job with world-weary cynicism and resignation. Other cops like Sgt. Ed Exley (Pearce) and Officer Bud White (Crowe) operate on different ends of the policing spectrum. Exley is a straight arrow who knows politics is an integral part of the job, while White is a brutish cop used mostly as muscle, but would love one day to actually work a case. Then there is Captain Dudley Smith (Cromwell), who lords over his department while managing to walk between the raindrops.
The plot of L.A. Confidential takes a while to reveal itself. Crime lord Mickey Cohen is sent to prison, and other gangsters try to move in and take over his rackets. This doesn't sit well with Captain Smith, who uses White to beat the hell out of any interlopers and send them back to where they came from. Some of Cohen's lieutenants are murdered and a late-night bloodbath of a homicide at a local coffee shop tests the moral and ethical boundaries of Exley, White, and Vincennes. Just how far are they willing to go to reach the truth? Do they even want to know it?
Pimp Pierce Patchett (Strathairn), who operates a high-end call girl ring using prostitutes who undergo plastic surgery to make his girls resemble movie stars, is part of the game. How does he fit in? White encounters a Veronica Lake lookalike named Lynn (Basinger) and asks questions, but we also see he is clearly in love with her. In an ironic twist, the most honest person in the movie is Lynn, who reveals she never underwent plastic surgery and may even be in love with White. When she is forced to break his heart on behalf of her boss, she is saddened and torn. Each cop, except maybe Smith, reaches a point in L.A. Confidential when he becomes riddled with guilt. Exley, White, and Vincennes realizes they can only bend their morals so far before they can no longer look at themselves in the mirror.
I won't reveal much about where the plot goes. It seems labyrinthine at first, but one of the sheer joys of watching L.A. Confidential is watching the puzzle assembled piece by piece. When all is said and done, you are amazed by how simply everything fits together. Another reason to enjoy L.A. Confidential is the complexities of the characters. We think have a line on Exley, White, Vincennes, and the others and predict how they will act. Then, the movie upsets our expectations with curve balls. Everyone operates in the gray areas of police work and Hollywood. L.A. Confidential understands how the two seemingly unrelated professions work hand-in-hand. There was a line between what the Los Angeles Times would report about actors and what tabloids like Hush-Hush would report. In voice-over narration, Sid can barely conceal his glee as he types his stories about the latest sleaze on to a blank sheet of paper. Hush-Hush will move copies and cops like Vincennes will profit simply by ensuring he drags a B-list actor out of his home in the middle of the night and poses in front of a lit-up movie theater. The officers themselves cannot escape becoming celebrities themselves. Exley is told more than once to lose his glasses because they make him look like a bookworm, which won't play well for the cameras.
L.A. Confidential made stars out of Pearce and Crowe, the latter would win a Best Actor Oscar three years after this movie's release. Spacey stands out as usual. Cromwell gives us a 180-degree swing from his Oscar-nominated performance in Babe from two years earlier. Basinger won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Lynn. She isn't simply a beautiful presence or a cliched hooker with a heart of gold. Basinger gives us depth and the most self-assured person in the whole movie. Guys like Exley, White, and Vincennes could take some tips from her on how to be true to themselves.
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