Fridae

I suppose Ken Bruen is the Irish equivalent of Elmore Leonard, writing gritty crime novels that are both critically respected and popular. The difference is Ken Bruen has never had any of his novels adapted for film till now, with London Boulevard. Helmed by first-time director William Monahan, who previously wrote the screenplay for The Departed, you’d think that this project would be in safe hands.

As it turns out, the premise of London Boulevard itself makes for a difficult endeavor. The gimmick of the novel is that it’s a noir story tacked onto a pulpy romance. In the film adaptation, Colin Farrell is a hardened criminal who decides to go legit after serving his time. As per noir conventions, he’ll be sucked back into the criminal world even as he resists the not-so-subtle and not-quite-friendly calling of his buddies and crime bosses (menacingly played by Ray Winstone). But as per frothy romantic convention, he’ll take on a day job as a handyman and bodyguard to a reclusive, emotionally damaged film star (Keira Knightley) who will fall hard for him.

While the double genre of this story played out nicely in print, I cannot say the same with this film adaptation. To put it frankly, Monahan seems unequal to the task of reconciling both genres in one film; Monahan may make great thrillers but has no ear for romantic dialogue and no sense for directing romantic scenes. Farrell’s scenes with Ben Chaplin and Ray Winstone evoke just the right amount of menace and noir. However, his scenes with Keira Knightley are painful to watch: trite dialogue, syrupy soundtrack, and lazy direction tends towards Mills and Boons embarrassing.

Switching between stories is like experiencing culture shock. The strength of the noir scenes makes the romance story feel so weak and unbelievable that it takes on the feel of unintentional comedy. Sadly, the talents of Keira Knightley are so criminally underused, Monahan might as well have cast Elizabeth Hurley and achieved the same result.

London Boulevard is an interesting film experiment and may satisfy the adventurous moive-goer and fans of the original novel.