Review of Devil in a Blue Dress (1995) by Kenneth L — 11 Jun 2010

An enjoyable throwback to the film noirs of the 1940s, with the interesting twist that the hero is African-American. The movie has all the elements of a traditional noir: a murky mystery, tough guys, narration from the main character, fedoras, guns, a femme fatale or two.

It's like a somewhat more modest L.A. Confidential. Denzel Washington is excellent as the protagonist, an ordinary guy who only gets mixed up in the mystery because he needs to make house payments.

Tom Sizemore has one of his better parts as the sinister private eye who hires Denzel's character to look for a missing woman. Jennifer Beals does a fine job as the titular devil in a blue dress, looking like she could have just come from hanging out with Mary Astor and Marlene Dietrich.

Don Cheadle gets absolutely one of the best roles I've seen him in, even though it's a relatively small one, as Denzel's violent gangster friend. The story is intriguing most of the way through, but does kind of fizzle out towards the end.

The last lines of narration for me struck a silly, false note. Still, this is an admirable entry in the subgenre of the neo-noir, and gives you a bit of a sense of the hostile race relations of the time.