I agree. I just watched this film last night as it is streaming on Netflix Instant. I love neo-noir, particularly 90's movies that look back at tough L.A. detectives and classy dames of the 40's and 50's. "L.A. Confidential" is obviously the best. I think "Mulholland Falls" had potential, and certainly had a great cast, but it was completely derailed by the script.
The opening scene: brilliant. Nick Nolte and his crew look out of place at a fancy restaurant, then bust in and rough up a bunch of Chicago gangsters like it ain't no thing. They drag William Peterson to the top of 'Mulholland Falls' and let him go. "You can't do this! This is America!" pleads Peterson. Nick Nolte says, "This isn't America. This is L.A."
BAM! That's a great opening 'hook,' this whole scene is probably why the screenplay sold in the first place, and this is what the whole movie should have been about. The rise and fall of Nick Nolte's "Hat Squad" - how they bent the rules and pushed the law too far, and how the tide of the country was about to change the Miranda Rights and such, and they could never go back.
I think the rest of the script made two mistakes. One, they brought the military into it. This just wasn't as interesting as that opening scene and it just becomes about 'cops vs. army soldiers.' No good. A military conspiracy in the middle of a L.A. detective story, I suppose that's a novel thing, but it's brought down by miscasting. Treat Williams and John Malkovich don't come across as genuine military personnel. Overall, this entire plot feels like a subplot, disconnected from what should have been the main thrust of the film - Nick and his squad brought to the edge.
The other mistake the script made: relying far too much on flashbacks. We only see Jennifer Connolly in flashbacks! She is a knockout, dynamite screen presence and she's hardly in this movie for more than five minutes. This movie was about 107 minutes long...what you really needed was a 145 minute epic. Cut the whole military angle, show how Nick Nolte met and fell in love with Jennifer in real time - not a flashback - and how it disintegrated his marriage. This could be alongside a main plot of Nick trying to stop gangsters or butting heads with the FBI, or maybe there's a Dahlia-like killer who's targeting women like Jennifer and she dies at the midpoint of the film.
The problem with flashbacks is that they typically reveal information to the viewer that the characters already know. It's at the Act I break we learn that Nick had an affair with Jennifer but that doesn't really change anything. Nick was investigating the case before and he's still gonna investigate it now. He needed to be forced to make a decision, something would that have spun the story in another direction for Act 2. Instead, they just continue doing what they're doing, until Nick's men get attacked by the military at the beachouse. That's an exciting scene but it should have come much earlier.
Anyway. This movie had loads of potential but clearly a lot of problems too.
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