Twilight

This is old style movie making, with ageing actors; a crime film where there's hardly any yelling, not a lot of violence, but still a movie where real violence, murder happens. It's unlikely that a young audience will find Twilight very attractive, but those who appreciate fine acting will enjoy Twilight immensely.

In the tradition of film noir, as the private investigator (Paul Newman) narrates his thoughts we're lead along within his guessing game, and true to the genre, the femme fatale played by Susan Sarandon often wears black, (or is she just the female victim of circumstance?) All the characters are saddened by their own deceptions.

Twilight isn't so much a riveting tale, although there is a fair bit of red meat in the plot, but the characters, or at least the way they are portrayed, are fascinating.

Paul Newman plays Harry Ross who was a cop for decades, then a private investigator, but for the last two years has become something of a drunk. He's lonely, broke and disillusioned.

He lives above the garage in the house of wealthy former movie stars Jack Ames and Catherine (Hackman and Sarandon) having brought their runaway daughter Mel (Resse Witherspoon) back home two years before from Mexico.

Jack has cancer, is dying and is financially in big trouble. This being film noir we'd expect there to be sexual tension between the rich wife and the private investigator, which is complicated by the close friendship the P.I. has with the husband.

There's nothing like the eternal triangle to encourage tension. Then there's the sex pot daughter and there's Harry Ross.

Paul Newman's Harry Ross is played with a commendable mixture of world weariness and ease, His slow smile and the guttural rumble in his voice will have most of the audience hoping that the P.I. wins his dangerous game.

Complicating the scene, Harry Ross reportedly has had his dick shot off (by mistake) by Mel when he repatriated her from Mexico, which becomes a running joke (not much of a joke for poor Harry) in Twilight.

Of course there's more, much more than I'll relate here, but Harry Ross has had the hots for a local detective played by Stockard Channing, a wonderful actress who's superlative appearances in cinema are only limited by her continued acclaimed work on the live stage.

The detective puts her career on the line for Harry when the going gets tough, not unusual in these sorts of films, but she does this in spite of her concerns about the state of Harry's anatomy. Stockard Channing just about steals the show.

The mystery in Twilight in retrospect held few surprises and followed a fairly predictable format, but that is more than compensated for by the dour worldliness of the characters.