Sketch Artist (1992)

Thanks for the memories!

Let's be realistic.

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

"Sketch Artist" feels like just about everyone involved in making the movie - the actors, director, and writer - has the life sucked out of them before filming started. To begin with, take the title character, played by Jeff Fahey. There is no particular reason why we feel we should get involved in his plight. He is almost completely without emotion or passion, his appearance is sloppy, he makes some pretty dumb decisions, and his investigation of the mystery is done incredibly slowly, like he just doesn't care about what could happen to him. The director didn't seem to care about his character as well. There's no feeling of tension or panic anywhere in the movie, and the climax has the impact of a wet noodle hitting the ground.I will admit that Drew Barrymore, in a limited role, does give a surprisingly decent performance. And it's always fun to see bald-headed actor James Tolkan play another authority figure, though his role is limited as well. But neither actor is given enough to make the movie worth watching.

I recently rewatched this, not remembering it kindly. But I actually liked it when seen recently. Sean Young is redheaded, a photographer. Her husband is the police sketch artist of the title. There is a murder which involves the fashion industry.A great many elements of this are dull, formulaic. But there is some very nice shaping here. Our noir narrator does not narrate in the conventional sense, but through the image. Actually, it is only one image, but we invest a great deal in it early in the movie. A witness played by Drew Barrymore when she competently specialized in these characters, describes the murderer and we slowly see the image of the artist's wife. We have brazenly been introduced to her, punctuated by a unique bright red hairstyle and some provocative near nudity.What follows is a quest to discover what is up, and toward the end to exonerate himself. Along the way, Drew's character is killed, in such a way to reveal some notable armpit hair. Pretty impressive for a TeeVee movie, that. The unraveling of the mystery is unremarkable, but that development of the image mattered. It was novel, highly cinematic and well done. Sean Young lost her bearings some time before this, but that cold confusion of self adds to the character here.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I found this 1992 TV movie not only irritating but a waste of two good talents. What a waste to see Sean Young in a thankless role and Drew Barrymore seen only in a few clips. Both ladies, high on my list of good actresses, were seen only in a few scenes. And those scenes gave them nothing to do. Instead we're forced to watch Jeff Fahey play a role that got more irritating as it went along. If he chain smoked in another scene I was going to scream. With hair from the 70s, unshaven, unkempt and generally looking as seedy as you can get, you wondered what Sean saw in this loser. In life he'd never get away with what he does in this film. Stealing a car, as a detective, even having a police car pass him on the road and not getting stopped. I won't bother you with all the flaws of this movie. It was written by Michael Angeli and directed by Phedon Papamichael. So I give this loser 2 stars for the 2 ladies wasted in a bad bad movie.

Jeff Fahey stars as a sketch artist who basically takes a witness's(Drew Barrymore) details who then describes the sketch artist's wife (Sean Young) in denial about this Fahey launches his own investigation finding out secrets about his wife and her lover's shaky business ventures. Sketch Artist is actually far better than you would expect, for instance the film is downbeat and features characters who are cynical and willing to protect their own interests. Which brings us to our hero in Jeff Fahey who draws the picture wrong because he wants to keep his wife from being suspect. In real life things like this are not black and white, although people tend to find these antics unlikable it goes without saying that it gives more reality and dimension to a story that could be easily routine and transparent. While the story itself is routine, the story's downbeat angle and film noir style make this an interesting effort. A better than average TV movie if there ever was one.* * * out of 4-(Good)