Watching the Detectives (2007)

Thanks to R2D2 for turning me on to this film, which luckily has been playing on Showtime like crazy. Paul Soter (of Broken Lizard fame) embarks on his first solo writing and directing venture with Watching the Detectives. Neil (Cillian Murphy) is a reclusive film nerd and the owner of a failing video store specializing in cult and hard-to-find movies. After blowing it with his unsupportive girlfriend (she "should have been more like Etta Place in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), he spends most of his time hanging around the store with similarly-minded geeks, quoting lines and swapping trivia. When the lovely Violet (Lucy Liu) waltzes into his store to rent something, his life is unalterably changed. She's odd, imaginative, unpredictable, and knows nothing about movies.

Somehow he scores a date with her, and is immediately pulled into her wacky antics, which include kissing through a fence and breaking into the rival chain video store to deviously switch their dvds between cases. Violet is closed-lipped about her personal life, not even willing to give Neil her number at first. But she keeps popping up at his store to indulge in weird adventures. She enjoys messing with him, usually to his chagrin, but her constant toying confuses him. Her attempts to pull him out of his closed-off life are too dramatic and too erratic for his constitution. Unless he's able to stop watching movies and start really living, he may never get another chance with Violet, who may well prove to be his salvation.

I found this very enjoyable, but also uneven. It was a cute premise and had some well-written conversations and great movie references, but plot-wise it was too sparse. It was more like a collection of skits than a cohesive love story. That being said, the skit-like scenes were quite entertaining. Cillian Murphy played rock star to a crowd of cardboard movie stars, Lucy Liu was held hostage by a bald guy, and geekdom ran rampant every time we set foot in Neil's video store. It was pretty silly. Great performances from both of the leads, neither of whom I'd seen in straight-up comedic roles before.

It's definitely an interesting and unique relationship, but it was a little too unstable for me. Like Neil, the viewer is constantly at odds with Violet's pranks and tricks, unsure what's real. It made it hard to get a grip on the character and therefore on the story itself. Otherwise it's pretty fun. And it's got a good message: make your own adventures! Don't thrive on fictional experiences! (Even though I was totally on Neil's side whenever he was like "let's watch a movie" and Violet was like "nuh-uh let's go to do something crazy in the real world". I was like "but you guys! movies!".)

3.5/5