V.I. Warshawski (1991)

One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

As Good As It Gets

A Masterpiece!

Kathleen Turner plays a wise-cracking and sarcastic private detective whose new boyfriend, Boom-Boom, has been killed in a ship explosion. She ends up taking in his daughter, Kat, and together, they set out to find out who was behind Boom-Boom's murder.Turner is filled with hilarious one-liners and deadpan deliveries, giving the film plenty of humor. There are some good old fashion detective work that keeps the film going at a steady pace.The script was OK and the acting was pretty good, but what's lacking is some needed suspense, unpredictability and thrills. The action is also limited, but, the film overall is still pretty entertaining and fun.Grade B

It is my personal opinion that this film would have rated a lot higher if the main character had been a man and not a woman. V.I. Warshawski is a private eye in Chicago who is left with a thirteen year old girl who is the inheritor of a potentially vast estate with the murder of her father. Investigating why the father was killed leads to several interesting discoveries. One of the uncles is trying to kill the girl to get the estate. The mother of the girl, after shooting her husband, the uncle, turns out to be just as greedy and she is willing to kill her own daughter to get the loot. V.I. ends up having to kill the mother to save the daughter. Boy can the P.I. take a punch from Wayne Knight. Knight is some kind of union scum but V.I. gets even for the beating. I enjoyed this movie and found it to be pretty good entertainment.

This movie does have some things going for it; above all, the performances of Kathleen Turner and Angela Goethals. Turner fits the profile of her character and is believably tough, sarcastic and funny, while Goethals is one of the best teen actresses I've seen in a while, with a sharp timing that matches Turner; those two make an enjoyable team. And yet something holds the movie back from being anything more than a passable diversion - maybe it's the plot, which is interesting for the most part but gets a little too far-fetched at the end (without spoiling anything, I couldn't easily accept that "person A" was so intent on killing "person B"), or maybe it's the direction, which doesn't have enough style and doesn't make much use of the Chicago locations (apart from a boat chase). It's kind of a shame that this movie didn't get any sequels - they had the right actress for the part, all they needed was a better vehicle for her. ** out of 4.

For the time this movie was released, it really is a solid film. One I stop and watch anytime I catch it on cable. I like Kathleen Turner as Vic and see her as Vic when I read Paretsky's Blacklist (2004) and Indemity Only (1982). Paretsky is such a skilled writer that I read all 332 pages of Indemity Only completely in one Saturday. This would have been a good vehicle/series for Ms. Turner if the movie had followed the novels closer. They should have hired Paretsky to write the screen play.The screenwriters, Edward Taylor, David Aaron Cohen, & Nick Thiel, I believe are responsible for this film being unsuccessful at the box office. It appears they did not read the books or believe themselves that a women could be a private investigator. Paretsky gave them a well rounded, gritty, thorough character. The screenwriters tried to make it a comedy/action film and dishonored Paretsky in their representation of her character. The screen play should have been written as an action/thriller along the lines of Patriot Games (1992), an action/crime like the Italian Job (2003), or a mystery along the lines of the Thomas Crown affair (1999). All have comedic moments in them and would be better genres for the V.I. Warshawki novels.Maybe if Ms. Turner is up to it she could revive the character or perhaps Charlize Theron would take a shot at it.