Review of Inherent Vice

Inherent Vice starts off incredibly well, piling on visual gags and a crazed narrative that's hazy like a drug fever dream, but it runs out of steam and has a running time that just can't support this material. For about an hour and a half the film is quite inspired, as our perpetually stoned lead gets sucked into a labyrinth plot and one bizarre and usually fantastic character after another is thrown at this drug addled mess. The film continues at least an hour well beyond what this narrative can sustain. The pacing is off, the plot just feels deliberately muddled and while there are still plenty of jokes, the film just feels labored and exhausted after a while. Paul Thomas Anderson just didn't know when to quit on this one. The man is certainly one of the best filmmakers out there and despite Inherent Vice's shortcomings, it's still a wonderfully crafted film with some great acting - the cast is uniformly excellent. He may not have pulled off the film completely, but it's always a pleasure to see a director continue to make bold and challenging work. The film is usually episodic and feels mostly disconnected on a scene to scene basis and there really isn't a scene that doesn't work, but PT Anderson didn't exactly make enough disciplined editing choices to shape the film and trim it down.