Review of Brick (2006) by David K — 15 Nov 2010

While a nice spin on the noir genre, 'Brick' plays a sour note one too many times. I appreciate what the movie is going for as I have been longing for a detective story that hearkens back to the golden age of Hollywood crime dramas. 'Brick' however seems to try and shove it's style down the throats of everyone, from the actors to the audience. It wasn't until about the 15 minute mark that I actually was able to comprehend what I was actually watching. Not only is the detective hard-boiled, but the dialogue is as well. For every one line I could comprehend, there were two that I could not. Combine that with undeveloped characters who until half-way through I could not even identify by name, left me unable to follow any of the sub-plots leading to the reveal at the end, and by that time, I no longer cared.

With all of the bile I am spewing, I am recommending this movie and will certainly not call it bad. Gordon-Levitt does have presence to draw the audience in and there were a lot of neat little touches that had me intrigued and laughing at times. Admittedly also that though I no longer was invested in the overall plot, the plot twists that I could follow were rather ingenious. Plus it is nice to see a movie try to experiment and be different. The point of experimentation sometimes is not producing a fine solution in the end, but merely attempting to find one.