Narration Noir

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

Director: Shane Black

Rated: R

I love those old movies that have the main character doing voice overs on top of the whole thing. I love Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. I love murder mysteries and characters that are much stronger than people think.

Ergo, I love this movie.

The cast and characters are terrific. Our main characters are Harry Lockhart, Perry Van Shrike (given the nickname Gay Perry—because he's gay) and Harmony Faith Lane. Just look at those names and tell me you don't think this movie's already awesome. I triple dog dare you.

It even starts out with an adorable scene starring Indio Downey, Robert Downey Jr's son, as a young Harry Lockhart. He's performing as "Harold the Great" to the crowd at the fair with Harmony Faith Lane as his assistant. It's going all normal until Harmony starts screaming like... Well, like the chainsaw is actually cutting her in half. Freaked out, Harry starts working on the padlock that closes the box. When Harmony's father get's up to the stage and the box is opened, we all find out that Harmony just had her legs safely tucked up as high as they would go. And what does this precocious and undeniably adorable little girl have to say about this to her freaked out dad and magician best friend?

"I'm going to be an actress."

Dad raises his hand to backhand her and the credits start with some gorgeous jazzy music by John Ottman. He also did the music for The Usual Suspects, another one of my all-time favorite crime mystery movies.

In all honestly, I consider the opening credits to be one of the other highlights of this movie. They remind me of some old Saul Bass title sequences.

As soon as the credits finish we're introduced to adult Harry. In Los Angeles. He tells us he'll be our narrator for the duration of the movie. It's Christmas time* and he's at a party where he doesn't know a single person other than his agent, Dabney Shaw (played by the hi-larious Larry Miller). He barely knows Dabney in the first place. Why?

Because the entire reason Harry is in LA with Dabney Shaw as his agent was due to a stroke of luck (sort of). He was originally robbing a closed toy store with a friend whilst on the phone with his neice, Chloe, who was trying to describe a Cyberman doll she wanted for Christmas. Which makes me wonder, to this day, if Harry has a sister (or brother) still back in Indiana... But that's not really important. What's important is the alarm hack slips and he and his partner in crime go running.

In escaping the police, Harry quite literally bursts into an audition for some sort of cop drama. He gets wound up during his cold read, delivers an outstanding performance, and gets flown to LA to get detective lessons from "Gay Perry."

Cut back to the party.

"Uh, I'm retired. I invented dice when I was a kid."

I'm jumping the gun here, but Harmony is at the same party.

She finds out that the host of the party has a collection of all the Johnny Gossamer pulp novels she used to read as a kid.

And Harry is introduced to Perry after getting his ass kicked by a sleazy guy all in the name of Harmony's honor (it just so happens that Harry didn't recognize her). I love how this short conversation between Harry and Perry sets the tone between them for the rest of the movie. Meaning, Perry sounds smart and witty and Harry sounds like an idiot in comparison. 

"One of these days I'm gonna learn how to fight."

Perry helps patch up our hapless hero in the kitchen of the main house and explains the reason why there's a party at Harlan Dexter's home in the first place. We soon learn that, in no uncertain terms, Perry is Awesome®.

After leaving the party and getting a lead from Perry on where Harmony might be, Harry comes across a club. He immediately runs into this chick named Flicka who plays a vital role in a tiny scene later on. She, like every other LA girl, asks Harry what he does.

"I'm a private detective."

Flicka politely leaves him and Harry scans the crowd for that more-than-familiar dark blonde "gal." Yes, he calls her a "gal," and I find that incredibly endearing. The way he speaks, in general, is adorable. For example:

"Wow, I feel sore. I mean physically, not like a guy who's angry in a movie in the 1950's."

Harry finds Harmony at the bar and, after some humorous back-and-forth that's interrupted by Harmony's "scary friend," Harmony pulls some impressive faces and tells Harry who she is and how she totally remembers him.

Herp derp.

Those are the three main characters right there. The important ones. And Flicka.

Here's the thing: if they re-released this movie this year, Shane Black and Warner Brothers would make a mint. Robert Downey Jr is such a huge star right now, and all of us who love this movie would definitely go see it in the theater. 

Everything in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang just gels. The snappy dialogue, the glittering visuals, the characters that these actors play... I already have this soft-spot for Val Kilmer (I loved Willow) but his no-nonsense, hard ass, snarky Gay Perry is probably the best thing he's ever done. It's also refreshing to have a gay character who is not made up entirely of stereotypes (though he does end up perpetuating a couple, his character is not one-dimensional). Perry is a badass. He is the smartest character in the movie, and at the end of it all you want to see more of him. Especially after the scene where he confronts Harmony's father.

"Yeah, that's right. Big tough guy."

The story is not so much about the mystery of the murder as it is about Harry Lockhart's journey through the detective story. It's about him finishing something. He mentions to Harmony how he cuts out before the finish to avoid conflict, and this is his journey to see the conflict through to the bitter end. 

This is about Harry leaving his comfort zone. 

The DVD is great. Though it lacks any behind the scenes stuff, there's a hilarious (and long) gag reel and a commentary track with Robert, Val, and Shane. I wish every movie made came with these two special features. When Tropic Thunder came with the same kind of extras (including Robert taking his line "man, I don't drop character 'til I done the DVD commentary" literally), I immediately bought a copy just for the extras. Really, it's these extras that make me buy the DVD—if a movie I watched comes out on DVD, but doesn't have special features, I will end up not buying the DVD. Because, to me, it isn't worth it. 

The point of this post is this: buy the DVD. See the movie. It's charming and smart and worth multiple watches. There are things you'll notice on repeated viewings. Take a shot with it. It's one of my top five all-time favorite movies. 

Maybe even number one. 

But that's another post entirely.

*As this movie is set during Christmas (something Shane Black seems to like doing), it gets added to that list of movies that I watch every year. So: Rudolph, Die Hard, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.