Son of Kermode :: Movie Reviews Blog

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Val Kilmer, Eva Mendes, Ja Rule
Director: Werner Herzog
Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Summary: Addicted to painkillers after a back injury in the line of duty, Lt. Terence McDonagh (Cage) dives into a hedonistic life of drug, alcohol and power abuse...

A tale of excess and ambiguous redemption, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans is the strangest morality tale you're likely to see on the big screen this year or any other year. Held together by the unusual techniques and flourishes of Werner Herzog and an almost supernaturally unhinged performance from Nicolas Cage, it's either one of the best films I've seen this year or one of the worst. One thing's for sure it's certainly the most audacious.

Not a sequel to the original Abel Ferrara movie, which was literally a Harvey Keitel wankfest, Port of Call simply takes the name of the franchise and goes in a different direction with the concept. Taking away the Catholic guilt, the excessive sleaze and images of a drugged up, crying like a baby, naked Harvey Keitel and replacing them with an almost gleeful and playful look at one cops headlong fall from grace into the world of murder, prostitution and gambling.

The plot which involves Cage's investigation into the death of a Senegalese immigrant family and the resulting connections to local crime boss Big Fate (Xibit), unravels in a labyrinthine fashion. People are double crossed here and there, good guys can't be trusted, bad guys can and while all this unfolds Cage rolls like a pig in the proverbial. Herzog, by giving Cage carte blanche with the character, has created a performance which plays like an unhinged pantomime Columbo horse - erratic, intelligent and a fondness of cocaine covered sugarcubes.

Through the haze of drug and gunshot smoke, Herzog directs proceedings like it were a modern day fairytale. The surreal imagery of various reptilian creatures, peaceful fish, dangerous femme fatales and the duplicitous nature of the world in which the Bad Lieutenant resides is effectively played out amongst the recently ravaged environment and dark dangerous world of New Orleans. However, these touches can occasionally pull the audience out of the film and leave them as confused as Cage himself. The constant jumps from the surreal to the darkly humorous mean plot and surrounding character development is often as undercooked as Cage's heroin - but when your along for the trip with him it makes it difficult to not still have a maniacal smile lashed across your face for the majority.

The coming together of two of films biggest enigmas has of course fashioned a bizarre detective story that resembles Ferrara's original in name only. Port of Call is difficult to grasp pulp fiction you'll either be with after the first five minutes or unable to get past the bizarre images that you are seeing. Luckily, I was part of the former and loved nearly every minute.

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