Marlowe

Marlowe is a 2022 neo-noir crime thriller mystery film directed by Neil Jordan, who co-wrote the screenplay with William Monahan. Based on the 2014 novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville, writing under the pen name Benjamin Black, the film stars Liam Neeson as brooding private detective Philip Marlowe, a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler, and features Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alan Cumming, Francois Arnaud, Ian Hart, Danny Huston, Daniela Melchior and Colm Meaney. It premiered at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival on 24 September 2022 and was theatrically released on 15 February 2023, by Open Road Films and Briarcliff Entertainment. The film received mixed reviews from critics. Plot In 1939 Los Angeles, private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by glamorous heiress Clare Cavendish to find her missing lover, Nico Peterson, a prop master at Pacific Film Studios. He quickly learns that Peterson is dead, having been killed after falling down drunk before a car ran over his head outside the exclusive luxury Corbata Club. Marlowe visits Cavendish to tell her of Peterson's demise, also meeting the Pacific's owner, Philip O'Reilly, the soon-to-be Ambassador to England. Cavendish reveals she has seen Peterson since his supposed death, driving past her in Tijuana. Annoyed at her withholding this information, Marlowe goes to leave, running into Cavendish's mother, film star Dorothy Quincannon, who fails to learn what service Marlowe is providing to her daughter. Marlowe visits Peterson's grave and encounters a mourning woman but she escapes before he can talk to her. Marlowe convinces his friend, homicide detective Joe Green, to open a murder investigation now they know the body was not Peterson's. Green admonishes Marlowe for his relentless pursuit of the truth and reveals that the body was identified by the Corbata Club owner, Floyd Hanson. Marlowe meets with Hanson at the club, the pair failing to extract information from each other. While leaving, Marlowe notices the woman from the grave, Peterson's sister Lynn, and clandestinely agrees to meet with her at the Cabana club later that evening; their discussion is observed by Hanson. When he arrives, Marlowe is assaulted by two men but beats them unconscious.