Review of Inherent Vice (2014) by Olive4863 — 10 Jan 2015

I went to see this film reluctantly due to the fact that the trailers made it look like a ridiculous pot smoking-infused version of American Hustle, which I loved, and didn't want to see "ripped off"!

What did pull me in was the fact that I would get to watch Joaqin Phoenix for a full two and a half hours, which for me would have been well worth the price of admission regardless of the quality of the film.

What I saw was unbelievably hilarious while still subtly and powerfully wrapping the entire endeavor in a poignant melancholy for all that is wrong with the society we inhabit together today. That is a huge undertaking for a film and it could have gone in a depressing or simply ranting direction. Instead, this filmmaker elicits both outrage and empathy in the viewer for the conditions surrounding us humans as we flail our way through the inevitable injustices and heroics of life in the 21st century.

Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin create a chemistry which sums up so much of the opposing forces that surround us, socially, politically and spiritually.

I highly recommend this film but suggest you allow yourself to go along for the ride, and let the multifaceted emotions, and wonderful humor wash over you as you plough through, an, at times, indiscernible plot. The full experience of the closing will make it worth your patience and tolerance for ambiguity.