As I noted last week in my Youth in Revolt review, book-to-film adaptations often have a distinct feel. First and foremost they tend to be overstuffed, carrying more plot, subplots, themes and supporting characters than they can really handle. It’s uncommon, however, to encounter a movie that feels like an adaptation of a novel, and yet, apparently, isn’t one.
Such is the case with Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (related in name only to the 1992 original), which constructs a sprawling, film noir-style story around a corrupt but occasionally conscientious New Orleans cop named Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage). McDonagh injures himself saving a prison inmate’s life during Hurricane Katrina, and his attempts to numb the resulting back pain through pills and narcotics end up entangling him in the city’s criminal underbelly. I won’t even try to explain any more about the plot, which involves the murder of a Senegalese family, McDonagh’s alcoholic father, college football, and much, much more. It all culminates in an ambiguous conclusion that’s thought-provoking but would’ve needed more build-up to really be satisfying.
Tellingly, the screenplay was written by William M. Finkelstein, an Emmy-winning TV writer for shows such as L.A. Law and NYPD Blue. This is Finkelstein’s first big-screen writing credit, and it makes perfect sense that a guy used to working with ensemble casts and season-long story arcs would produce a script this intricately ambitious. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie started out as a pitch for a TV drama that never got picked up.
The thing is, though, that that TV drama probably would’ve been really good. McDonagh is a well-sketched protagonist, deeply flawed but still guilt-wracked enough to try and do the right thing every once in a while. It’s easy to make fun of Nicolas Cage, but he can work wonders when he has a decent film to work with; witness Raising Arizona or Adaptation. Here director Werner Herzog (known mainly for bulky epics like Fitzcarraldo and ominous nature documentaries like Grizzly Man) gets Cage to commit himself admirably to his character. The actor constantly slouches to one side and instills his lines with weariness and a fatalistic sense of humor.
The supporting cast is similarly distinctive, from McDonagh’s amoral partner (Val Kilmer) to an abusive john (Shea Wigham) who uses the word “whoa” more than Keanu Reeves on an acid trip. The waterlogged New Orleans location provides an appropriate backdrop, and the movie is peppered with amusingly surreal moments. These include imaginary reptiles, a breakdancing ghost and Cage yelling “You’re the fucking reason this country is going down the drain!” at two old ladies in a nursing home.
In fact, the film is often so much fun that it’s a shame that it has to rush through a two-hour running time. Oh well; maybe someday it’ll get made into a book.
