Undercurrent: Vincente Minnelli

If you’re going to make a film noir that's over 90 minutes, then you damn well better bring your 'A'-game. Though noir is by its very nature self-reflective, it is also a genre of kineticism, movement, and most importantly, immediacy. The more a noir drags itself out, the more it suffers from creative constipation. There are notable exceptions, of course. But Vincente Minnelli's Undercurrent is not one of them. Not only is the film almost two hours long (which is almost four hours in film noir time), but the plot is so tedious that sitting through the entire thing becomes an endurance test. Basically the film is about a middle-aged woman played by Katharine Hepburn who falls in love and marries a charming man who, surprise, might actually be a jealous, murderous maniac. But the film flows like frozen molasses, forcing us to spend time with unnecessary characters and pointless plot developments. Hepburn's talents are wasted in this excuse for a film as well as those of Robert Taylor (the husband) and Robert Mitchum (Taylor's mysterious brother). In addition, the film is just ugly, utilizing flat, gray camera compositions. It's hard to believe that this film is by the same director who gave the world such Technicolor extravaganzas as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and An American in Paris (1951). Undercurrent may be the worst film noir that I've ever seen.

4/10