Review of Watching the Detectives (2007) by Ola G — 22 May 2014

Neil (Cillian Murphy), a self proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, a store specializing in B-movies and other hard to find titles, has always been content to live vicariously through his favourite films noir. His life consists more or less of watching movies and bickering about film trivia with his friends/employees Jonathan (Jason Sudeikis) and Lucien (Michael Panes). And when he plays a prank on his girlfriend Denise, she tells him he needs to get his life together instead of just watching movies and playing immature games. He casually breaks up with her, telling her she is not enough like Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The break up doesn´t effect Niel that much, but when he meets Violet (Lucy Liu), a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets really turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur. Will Neil step up and embrace a life full of adventure or retreat back to his comfortable couch?...

"Watching the Detectives" is an ok romantic comedy with a touch of "High Fidelity", but with a focus on movies. Cillian Murphy shows a bit range in his acting here and the same goes for Lucy Liu. The storyline of falling for someone who sweeps in literally like a storm, is something I can truly relate to. However, the "tests" and pranks headfuck Violet puts Neil through is not ok from any point of view. That sort of games would have made me tell Violet to fuck off mildly put it. I wouldn´t have accepted that sort of behaviour, meaning it´s hard to believe that Neil actually would take all that crap and still stay with Violet. The character has such an unbalanced way of being and with a selfishness bigger than the Empire State Building. Then again love is blind...