New Bad Lieutenant a Cage-y Mystery
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Detective Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) is promoted to Lieutenant after an act of heroism saved the life of a forgotten convict drowning inside his jail cell. Unfortunately he also seriously injured his back in the process, the doctors fairly positive he’ll be downing a large supply of painkillers for probably the rest of his life.
Nicolas Cage and Eva Mendes in First Look Pictures' Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Six months later Lt. McDonagh has graduated from prescription medicine to the hard stuff, hopelessly addicted to cocaine in order to deal with the pain. The more drugs he does the more divorced from reality he gets, the fact he’s supervising the investigation into the slaying of an immigrant family purportedly by narcotics kingpin Big Fate (Xzibit) a minor hiccup considering the enormity of the rest of his problems.
With wild abandoned and determined ferocity the detective prowls the streets of New Orleans looking for answers to the crime, drugs for both him and his high-priced escort girlfriend Frankie (Eva Mendes), money to cover his gambling debts and helpers to aid him in keeping internal affairs in the dark. The only problem is the line between fact and fantasy keeps blurring, McDonagh’s freewheeling ways detouring into a dark direction that could likely lead to his undoing.
The only thing connecting director Werner Herzog’s (Encounters at the End of the World, Rescue Dawn) thriller Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and Abel Ferrara’s 1992 NC-17 cult sensation Bad Lieutenant with Harvey Keitel is that both films share a somewhat similar name and feature a main character who colors way outside the lines. Otherwise they couldn’t be more dissimilar, that latter picture a lean, mean and brutally graphic potboiler that takes cinematic nihilism to its ultimate extreme.
This one, for all its bells, whistles and political incorrectness doesn’t come close to trying to go as far. Television veteran William Finkelstein’s (“NYPD Blue,” “Law & Order”) rather by the numbers screenplay is shockingly straightforward, and for all its main character’s nascent behavior the way he goes about getting things done isn’t too far removed from the tactics used by Harry Calahan or Martin Riggs. The only mystery here is whether or not McDonagh is going to go insane before he comes up with a way to keep his drug habit in check and bring his murder suspect to justice, and even that’s not nearly as mystifying as the screenwriter would probably like us to believe.
Because of that fact I got the feeling watching this film that Herzog, as wild and crazy a filmmaker who has maybe ever lived, probably felt more than a little bit bored while he was shooting this material and it certainly shows. The movie has an odd, lackadaisical pace that ebbs and flows like the tide. It comes alive only in fits and starts, the camerawork and editing oddly stilted to the point at times it almost felt like the picture shot and cut itself.
And yet, thanks primarily to Cage Port of Call New Orleans is oddly fascinating. The actor has a field day with the material, spiraling so far out of control I don’t know whether to proclaim his performance magnificent unhinged brilliance or just a talented actor going way too far over the top. Either way, this is the Cage many of us have grown to love and adore, his manic mania recalling the loopy insane glory days of Vampire’s Kiss, Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Moonstruck, Wild at Heart and Red Rock West.
More than that, there are also weirdly infatuating moments here and there where Herzog obviously found something that struck his fancy and decided to run with it with an equally wild abandoned. Out of nowhere scenes of lizards staring blankly into space and P.O.V. shots of alligators wandering the Louisiana freeways twist things into a realm straight out of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, these reptilian excursions giving the movie a surrealistic urgency the majority of it sadly lacks.
All that being true, I can’t say my feelings for this one are strong enough to warrant a recommendation. The pacing is too uneven and Finkelstein’s script has about four endings too many. But it has energy, it has a gonzo go for broke attitude and it also has a Cage willing to do just about anything to keep things interesting, three items many films would fall all over themselves to possess. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans isn’t necessarily my usual cup of tea, but thanks to aforementioned it’s thankfully a cup I could drink without too strenuous an effort.
Film Rating: êê1/2 (out of 4)
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