Inherent Vice is a book to film adaptation of a book by Thomas Pynchon. The film is a long and arduous detective tale with a lot of drug use. Doc is the main character who is a child of the 60’s and dabbles in all sorts of drugs but is most often seen lighting a joint in solemn contemplation. He is tasked with solving two or more mysteries which we find out early on are woven together.
He is a lazy detective but makes up for it with connections and generally seems to fall into clue to clue. This movie would have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for the celebrity cameo’s and well shot scene’s. It was also written by the director and it looks like he sacrificed a good amount to make the film seem like a art house flick. Maybe that’s how he got so many actors to appear in it.
Although it may appear as a commentary on the 70’s it really doesn’t do a good job as such but rather uses that time period as a backdrop. It uses the political and social issues as fluff for dialogue and scenes. Everything from communism, the Vietnam War, Charles Manson, free love, drug use and cartels are touched on. If you go into watching the movie thinking it is based on real life events you will be disappointed. I did have to watch it in two sittings, not because of boredom but because the story really doesn’t hold together well. The plot bounces around from scene to scene, character to character and subject to subject almost haphazardly so it is hard to follow. That was annoying at first, however, once reminded that it is a private detective film it seemed to fall into place. Once the final scene came it smashed that idea home even more with an aberrant monologue. That said, I really didn’t like the movie much until it was over but kept watching it because it reminded me of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The other show it may have been derived from may have been Magnum PI sans the mustache and shorts and set 10 years earlier with complimentary added drug use and sex.
The other interesting thing about the film is that most scenes could practically be watched as a self-contained short-like three minute youtube videos. Another interesting aspect is that it was narrated by Shasta, the very woman that the PI “Doc” is searching for – although he has a few other mysteries to solve at the same time – which adds complexity and depth to the film.
We are often drawn to movies that take us on a ride like an amusement part might, however, Inherent Vice diverges from this tactic by throwing us into the gritty underbelly of society then getting us lost in it with almost no direction. You might even check yourself to see if you are all there or left something behind.
