Watching The Detectives Movie Review (2007)
A quirky romantic comedy about a movie-store owner who meets a morally ambiguous woman, Watching the Detectives is an unusual film with strong chemistry between the leads and fun references for cinephiles.
The thing about Cillian Murphy is that I would happily watch him in anything. I know I’m not alone. There is a reason that he’s such a successful actor, and it’s written all over his face when he plays a role. Whether he’s a bad guy in Red Eye, a police officer in In Time, or an astronaut in Sunshine, I’m going to watch it. And if I’m being totally honest, he’s why I chose to watch this movie too.
Watching The Detectives is about Neil, a video store owner and movie buff who enjoys playing pranks to watch people’s reactions. When quirky Violet enters his store, his world gets turned upside down with the carefree way she lives her life. It’s almost as if he’s starring in his own movie.
This is an offbeat romcom that took me a little time to get into. I found Violet’s antics more annoying than endearing, and, other than a strange encounter between Neil and his ex-girlfriend at the beginning of the movie, I couldn’t quite understand why Neil would continue to spend time with Violet. But then I tried looking at it through a different lens.
Neil is a lover of films, and particularly noir. Noir movies generally have at least one character who lives by their own rules. Laws are for other people, and they have a code for why they live the way they live. That is Violet, and it seems that Neil wants permission to live by a similar code while still running a brick-and-mortar business.
Even with this explanation in hand, it was only during the second half of the movie where I started to buy in. Their relationship and adventures became gradually more engaging, and with Neil and his friends’ little quips about how Ben Affleck is a bad actor or their attempts to guess which scene a patron stopped their VHS tape by only looking at the length of tape left, there are some cute moments.
Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu are both adorable as Neil and Violet, and they have great chemistry. Violet prefers to live an adventure rather than watch it on television, which is a change for Neil, so the push-and-pull dynamic becomes increasingly fun.
I can’t say this is my favorite romantic comedy, but it is very different from the others you’ve seen. I kept thinking, “They tried a thing,” something many filmmakers can’t say. And while the “thing” doesn’t work consistently through the movie, Murphy, Liu, the noir music, and the random film mentions will keep you entertained enough.
Runtime: 94 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated (I’d say around PG-13)
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Nope
My Rating: 2.75/5 Stars
Available: Free on Prime Video and Tubi, or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
