Gotham (1988)

Lack of good storyline.

Fantastic!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Interesting plot, good acting by Virginia Madsen and Tommy Lee Jones. And probably the best rendition of Danny Boy classic (by JB White), that I have ever heard. The story revolves around the Private Eye (Jones), hired by the wealthy man, to find the ghost of his deceased wife (Madsen), whom he buried 10 years earlier. She asked to be buried naked, with her jewels. Her husband initially obliged, only to dig her up later on, to retrieve the jewels. Now the ghost of his wife has returned to hound him. Soon the ghost is found, but the detective is convinced that the woman is real (which she obviously is not) and falls in love with her. There is a bit of nudity and implied sex in the film ... and in the end ... the ghost gets her jewels (which turn out to be a paste), the detective is told that having sexual intercourse with a ghost is detrimental to his health .... and the ex-husband is back, where he started. All very intriguing.I have seen the film back in 1989, on TV in UK ... and later on, when I wanted to buy the DVD, I could not find it anywhere, till now .... on Amazon. It has been released in NTSC format only, so you will need the multi-region DVD player to watch it if you live within EU.

I did not know what to expect of Gotham, and I really was pleasantly surprised. The title is misleading, the location is realistic and unmistakably New York, as it is in the present. And the protagonists represent „normal" people, they are really more than mere comic book characters.The movie elegantly walks the dividing line between comedy and the film noir/horror/mystery genre. The story works from start to finish. It is really good and entertaining, I suspect it is a transcription of something European from the 19th century or even a classic folk tale, the basic question being „how do I pass the nasty ghost that's pursuing me on to another guy"? The cast is very good. Tommy Lee Jones plays a private eye who is at once very masculine and insecure and vulnerable. In other words, the classic Marlowe type. Jones pulls that off wonderfully, he definitely is a great and versatile actor. I enjoyed his multi layered, „deep" performance enormously. Virginia Madsen is perfect as the elegant, sexy and extremely nasty ghost (great wardrobe!). Completing the triangle is the woman's former husband, played by an actor hitherto unknown to me called Colin Bruce whose performance is excellent and memorable. In fact, Jones and Bruce are an excellent team here, they really made me think of some of the finest original films of the noir genre.Even visually, Gotham offers far more than the average fare. Somehow it reminded me of the work of director Robert Wise. The New York locations are put to good use. The overall atmosphere is consistently somber and brooding. I found it quite appealing. There is an unforgettable scene on the top of a not very high skyscraper somewhere in Manhattan with a good panorama over some older buildings of the area. The makers of the movie made the daring decision to film dream sequences the same way as the rest, so the viewers are never quite sure if what is going on is part of the main protagonist's imagination or real. Some may find that confusing as the method is rather uncommon in today's movie making. I found it gratifying as it gives me the feeling I am being taken seriously as a viewer.They had some nice „directorial ideas" here which are well filmed: Jones gets a glass of eggnog (or some such) thrown in his face. Distraught as he is, he does not wipe the milky liquid off and it frosts immediately. Looks great! The ghost at one time drowns in muddy water in full regalia. Etc, etc.Gotham displays everything it takes for intelligent entertainment. I can highly recommend this movie.

This, next to Volcano, is the worst Tommy Lee Jones film I've ever seen. The ghost bit didn't come off, the friends of Jones' character added nothing to the story...and the story! Just what was the story? Something about a ghost wanting her jewels back and her hubby running some creepy game on Jones. Stupid tale plus dull, plodding dialogue equals a real loser movie.

If now Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones were allowed to delete all memory of one of his previous films, no doubt he would choose this incredible mess of a thriller to cast into oblivion. He plays a private dick who is hired by a rich husband to settle some matters with his ex-wife, who is holding some jewelry of his in her possession. Only that the woman apparently has been dead for a decade! He takes the case thinking of making easy money with a crackpot client, but the woman appears to be alive and well and even very seductive (Virginia Madsen, no less), all qualities painfully lacking in the film, which is slow, poorly acted (evidence of a great lack of enthusiasm on the side of Tommy and par for the course for Madsen)and disconcertingly ambiguous, undecided between a solid thriller of unexpected final twists (which it has not) and a run of the mill ghost-story that had traded horror for sensuality. Really dreadful.