Directed by Greg “Superbad” Mottola and loaded with hilarious supporting roles, this detective comedy offers the star a role as a fabulous gonzo journalist.
What happened? Baby Driver ? Operation Beirut ? Bad weather at the El Royale hotel ? Jon Hamm never got his big post-Don Draper role, the character of madmen thanks to which the actor had reinvented the glamorous masculine class – cigarette and booze option included. Neo-Georges Clooney, Hamm obviously had trouble getting rid of the show’s fitted costumes, but it’s (perhaps) something done in this film which looks like, if not a turning point, at least a real break and a revelation. Because finally, Hamm is funny! For years as he turned madmenthe actor contrived to break his status as a sex symbol in episodes of 30Rock or playing the cable guy on Sarah Silverman’s sitcom. He wore his pearl gray suits during the day and at night did the zozo in sketches of the SNL or parodied himself in the series Good Omens… in vain. No one obviously wanted to see him as a comedy actor. Until Admit Fletch. The Fletch in question is a creation of Gregory McDonald: a gonzo and imitation private investigative journalist, born in the seventies who was entitled to a dozen books, including a Fletch, to the table!upgraded here to become a cunning film noir that is as much about the talent of its actor as it is about its script.
Admit it, Fletch: Jon Hamm gave back 60% of his salary to be able to finish the film
Let’s resume. As the narrator of kiss kiss bang bang said: “I guess you could call it a whodunit. There are some boring moments, but there’s murder in them. Also a broken heart, so I guess it’s a love story. Oh, and it’s all connected, with lots of detours, that’s cool. So let’s start with the murder, the opening of the film: Fletch descends the stairs of his Boston apartment (or rather of an apartment he rents) and discovers the corpse of a chilled blonde on his carpet. The hero has been investigating for a few weeks a series of thefts of paintings. But would this murder be linked to trafficking or could it be a real coincidence? Anyway, Fletch will have to play private detectives against a couple of cops (hilarious: a young novice trainee and an old sleuth embarrassed by his newborn who refuses to sleep) convinced that he is the culprit. To clear himself, he confronts many suspects: a hygienist art dealer, his current girlfriend and some weird neighbors…
Fletch is therefore above all a golden role for Hamm. It merges two facets of the investigator old school namely the cynical and shabby casualness ofElliott Gould in Private and the brave seduction of Cary Grant in Charade. A broke journalist who lives on the hooks of others, Fletch is a wanker, a half-silly, half-clever guy who doesn’t bother himself in any way (he walks around barefoot) and enjoys taking on false identities to interview the people. After having embodied the old-fashioned charm of Don Draper, Hamm excels here in the role of this shit-digger screwing up almost all his shots while retaining all of his sympathy capital. Above all, he distances himself from what had been imposed Chevy-Chase in Fletch on the heelsthe 1985 version (where, as in an episode of SNL, his Fletch chained disguise numbers, each more absurd than the other).
But his performance wouldn’t be worth anything if he didn’t have insane supporting roles opposite him and if he hadn’t been cut out dialogues shooting at supersonic speed. Since his girlfriend, an Italian heiress (Lorenza Izzo whom we had met in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) to his mother-in-law (Marcia Gay Harden, sauerkraut and accent to cut with a knife) via the precious art dealer (played by a supremely dandy Kyle MacLachlan) or the hippie neighbor (Annie Mumolo who has the best scene of the film) this parade of zinzins is undoubtedly the greatest pleasure of the film. If we add that Greg Mottola wraps it all up with a perfect sense of rhythm and wacky comedy, as Fletch would say when leaving the ubers: “five stars! »
Confess, Fletch is available on VOD since January 12
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Confess, Fletch: Jon Hamm’s Best Role Since Mad Men [critique]