Denzel Washington stars in this adaptation of the novel by African-American crime author Walter Mosley, the first of his stories to reach the screen. Ezekiel Rawlins (Washington), known to his friends as "Easy," has just lost his job at an aircraft plant in post-WW II Los Angeles, a time when good-paying jobs for black men are hard to come by. He's wondering how to make his mortgage payment when he's approached by De Witt Albright (Tom Sizemore), who describes his job as "doing favors for
friends." It seems that a woman named Daphne Monet (Jennifer Beals) has gone missing; Daphne is the former girlfriend of wealthy mayoral candidate Todd Carter (Terry Kinney) and a known habitué of the black jazz clubs and night spots on L.A.'s Central Avenue. Albright offers Easy $100 to help him find Daphne, and while he doesn't have any detective experience, the price is right, so Easy agrees. After a passionate affair with a friend of Daphne's, Coretta James (Lisa Nicole Carson), leads to that woman's murder, Easy enlists the help of his friend Mouse (Don Cheadle), who seems to know just a bit too well how to use a gun, which gives Easy all too clear a look at the lower depths of L.A.'s upper crust. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Entering the main flow of the story relatively late, Don Cheadle steals all his scenes as a live-wire, trigger-happy old buddy of Easy's from Texas, while Sizemore and Mel Winkler, as colorful underworld figures, make strong impressions.
Carl Franklin's unusually creative studio movie, boasting superlative acting from Denzel Washington and particularly newcomer Don Cheadle, reinvents a genre and a bygone era, in this case, Los Angeles circa 1948.
A lot of this movie is unintentionally funny, mostly because it is so obvious in trying to mock the whole Film Noir genre. However, it really doesn't end up doing so visually, which makes no sense really. It has a very unnecessary voice-over from Denzel Washington that really takes you out of the story rather than
educate you on the characters and plot. The movie doesn't end up being really bad and for the most part it's very enjoyable, what with the bizarre performances and character choices. It does manage to get the time period down, which is the greatest strength of the movie. Jennifer Beals also plays one good Femme Fatal, but not enough to save the movie. The ending is really what sends it off into the nonsense territory, making the entire story completely worthless.
Honest working stiff Denzel Washington finds himself out of a job and desperate for money, so he accepts a job locating a young woman for a shady stranger. Devil In A Blue dress is an extremely stylish modern noir with a slightly different slant; the setting of a post war Los Angeles within the African American
community gives this detective story a different flavour that marks it out from the norm. Denzel gives yet another solid performance of a tough but dignified, righteous man but the film is pretty much yanked out from under him by Don Cheadle in his breakthrough role. As Denzel's trigger happy sidekick he is both fearsome and hilarious and he effortlessly steals every scene he appears in. Although Tom Sizemore makes a good heavy, I felt we didn't see nearly enough of the corrupt politician who was behind all of these events but if you liked Chinatown or L.A. Confidential, this is well worth a look.
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