Amazon Prime Video is adding a new thriller to its lineup that puts Liam Neeson in big shoes: he plays a famous detective who has had seven other faces before him.
There are iconic private investigators who are allowed to fill screens and screens again and again in new films and with new stars. In England, nobody comes close to Sherlock Holmes; in the USA, Philip Marlowe is a true icon. Liam Neeson breathes new life into this detective in Marlowe and you can now experience this on Amazon Prime Video
On Amazon: Marlowe brings back iconic detective with Liam Neeson
In the late 1930s, the brooding, down-on-his-luck Philip Marlowe (Liam Neeson) pursues his profession as a detective in Los Angeles. He is hired by the rich heiress Clare Cavendish (Diane Kruger) to track down her missing ex-lover. Is the man who worked as a prop master on a movie really dead? This question leads the private investigator into a web of betrayal and lies that also involves the city’s elite.
The private detective Philip Marlowe, first created in 1939 by Raymond Chandler, has been played by many stars in his 85-year career. Seven actors donned the name and mantle of the detective antihero before Liam Neeson’s appearance in 2022. The most famous are probably the film appearances by Humphrey Bogart (Dead Men Sleep Well, 1946), Robert Montgomery (The Lady in the Lake, 1947) and Robert Mitchum (Go to Hell, Darling, 1975).
Is Marlowe worth it on Amazon? The thriller divided the critics
Taking an icon out of the drawer once again is no easy task. As a movie experience, Marlowe by director Neil Jordan (Interview with a Vampire) therefore found admirers and critics alike:
Critic Glenn Kenny describes the movie as “revisionist but smart, perceptive and insightful” in its approach. The Chicago Sun Times praises Liam Neeson’s “reliably powerful, world-weary, ‘I’m-too-old-for-this-S—‘ performance”. Collider in turn highlights the entire talented cast who “set the screen on fire and make us feel the trip to Hollywood’s Golden Age. “
Less enthusiastic voices like Slant Magazine , on the other hand, call Marlowe a “movie so full of noir clichés that it can almost be misconstrued as a parody at first”. The Observer finds Liam Neeson “lacking in energy” and his detective “the dullest resident of this sleazy Hollywood after dark”. The Hollywood Reporter draws its conclusion as follows:
Despite all the authentic genre elements Marlowe exhibits, the movie never quite comes to life on its own terms. It simply lacks the verve and esprit that elevates it above being more than a great pop song performed by a mediocre cover band.
Whether you’d rather join the praising or the critical voices, you can find out for yourself from today, January 5, 2023 on Amazon Prime Video.
