3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Confess, Fletch

2022, Greg Mottola (Paul) -- download

Kent just posted about this one, and pretty much says everything I would have said, but ... better?

I am not sure why I downloaded this one, but I do religiously watch all my Trailer sources (IMDB, YouTube, Plex, etc.) looking for interesting things, much of which I will never get around to actually seeing. But I agree with Kent, that this one was pretty much buried promotionally. I am wondering whether just seeding things into the New section of whatever streaming service you run is the low effort, to go method these days, as the purple suits know its more likely to hit faces than actual promotional campaigns. But whatever the reason, I like John Hamm and I thought these stories were more hard-boiled detective stories, despite knowing that Chevy Chase was in the "original" adaptation of this character (a movie I have no recollection of, at all), I thought this could be fun.

And I was right. It was. Hamm is the best ! Fletch is not a hard boiled detective, more a soft boiled "investigative reporter", but by the time the movie starts, he is not that anymore, nor do I know what he is really doing beyond living off his Italian girlfriend. There is a sub-genre of crime fiction which focuses on people blundering into events, and then bringing them to a conclusion. Fletch definitely is doing that here, ignoring the fact he is purposely inserted into the drama he has to unravel.

Irwin M Fletcher, noting that all write-ups of this character have to spell out his full name, is sent to Boston by his GF to recover some art work, to pay off her father's kidnappers. And in the airBNB'd house, he finds a dead body. He calls the police, and then patiently awaits their arrival, and despite/because of his affable but irritating nature, he also becomes their primary suspect. But he doesn't let that deter him from personally investigating the whole thing, which of course does tie to the reason he is in Boston to begin with. Its a loosely convoluted story with the expected misdirections, given its pulpy source material, easily tied up and digestible.

Hamm makes this movie. Like the character he plays, he effortlessly moves from one scene to the other, and while Fletch never quite actually solves things, he does (again) blunder into solutions. I don't recall exactly why, but I do recollect being equally irritated by him as charmed, which is definitely intentional. I would definitely watch another if this was a series.