Directed by Werner Herzog. Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Fairuza Balk, Jennifer Coolidge, Vondie Curtis Hall, Shawn Hatosy, Xzibit, Brad Dourif 18 cert, lim release, 122 min
Werner Herzog's insane drama is a riveting exercise in 'extreme characterisation', anchored by the unhinged performance of a lifetime from Nicolas Cage, writes DONALD CLARKE
SOMEWHERE, ON some TV documentary there's footage of Matt Groening discussing his first encounter with Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. The creator of The Simpsonsexplains how, when he first listened to the record, he thought it sounded horrible. "They weren't even trying," he said. He began to soften when he realised that, yes, it did sound horrible, but "they meantit to sound that way."
Welcome to the world of Werner Herzog. For more than three decades we have been squinting at the German director's singular films – classics such as Aguirre: Wrath of God, Stroszekand Fitzcarraldo– and wondering whether he intended them to seem this barmy.
Even before Bad Lieutenanthit cinemas, Herzogologists were grappling with characteristic eccentricities. For starters, what relationship did the picture (then still called Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans) bear to fellow maniac Abel Ferrara's 1992 Bad Lieutenant? It didn't seem to be a sequel or a remake. Herzog denied ever seeing "the original".
Such questions are hardly worth asking. Bad Lieutenantis such an uproarious mind-bender that all conventional concerns rapidly seem irrelevant.
We begin with a prologue set during Hurricane Katrina. Erratic, charismatic Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage), a cop of the anarchist school, jumps into rising waters to rescue a stranded convict. For his troubles, he winds up with a bad back that requires him to wolf down, bucketloads of mind-altering painkillers.
We are never entirely sure how much of Terence’s erratic behaviour is down to pharmacological confusion, but, some years later, he seems to have lost all moral compasses and finds it acceptable to shake down partying students in parking lots. He also gambles heavily and spends too much time with a good-time girl, played, without a safety net, goggles or kneepads, by a truly incandescent Eva Mendes.
There is a murder story buried within the chaos, but it is as important to the film’s appeal as the plotline of the average porn film – “I have come to clean the pool, madame” – is to that genre’s dubious purposes.
Bad Lieutenantis an unrestrained exercise in extreme characterisation. To that end, Herzog has coaxed the performance of a lifetime from Cage. Now we know why the actor has seemed so lost at sea for the past decade. Imagine, if you can, that Lassie had spent 10 years playing detectives, pirates and secretaries. He (actually she) wouldn't be very good in those roles, but, once he was cast as a dog, his purpose on earth would suddenly seem clear.
Similarly, Bad Lieutenantmakes clear that, for all these years, while he rolled his eyes, talked in cackles and accentuated adjectives randomly, Nic was unconsciously auditioning for a Werner Herzog film. At times you feel that, dressed in white coats, ready with the sedatives, you (and fellow asylum officials) are watching the performance from the sane side of a two-way mirror. But Herzog's direction matches the performance so exquisitely that you wouldn't have Cage behave any other way.
Mark Isham’s music buzzes with delta menace. Visions of iguanas stalk the lower levels of the screen. The camera seeks the most awkward corners of the room from which to view the action. The impression is of a noir thriller made by a talented visionary – a German perhaps – who has never seen a film in the genre, but has, quite some time ago, overheard two people talking about one.
Bad Lieutenantis rampaging, blotchy, irreverent, overheated and nearly impossible to follow. I am, however, pretty sure Werner Herzog meantit to feel that way.
