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Written by Mandroid3000
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FLETCH
**1/2 out of *****
Genres Mystery 1985
Directed by
Michael Ritchie
Written by
Gregory McDonald (novel)
Andrew Bergman
Cast
Chevy Chase .... Irwin 'Fletch' Fletcher
Joe Don Baker .... Police Chief Jerry Karlin
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson .... Gail Stanwyk
Richard Libertini .... 'Frank' Walker
Tim Matheson .... Alan Stanwyk
M. Emmet Walsh .... Dr. Joseph Dolan
George Wendt .... Fat Sam
Kenneth Mars .... Stanton Boyd
Geena Davis .... Larry
Bill Henderson .... Speaker
William Traylor .... Ted Underhill
George Wyner .... Arnold T. Pants, Esq.
Fletch is an entertaining comedy/mystery that fails to mesh the comedic and investigative elements into a believable whole. Chevy Chase is the whole show here, so your enjoyment of Fletch is highly dependent on your Chevy Chase tolerance levels. While the cast list shows there are some good supporting actors (M. Emmet Walsh, George Wendt, Geena Davis), they really are just here supporting Chevy.
Chevy Chase plays Fletch, a wise-cracking investigative reporter in Los Angeles. He’s a master of disguise, and currently masquerading as a bum to investigate the drug trade on LA’s beaches. While hanging on the beach he’s approached by the wealthy Alan Stanwyk and offered $1000 dollars to come to his house and listen to a proposition. Fletch, after making sure it’s nothing sexual, agrees. Stanwyk says he’s dying of bone cancer, and wants Fletch to break into his house in a week and shoot him, ensuring his family gets an insurance pay-out and he avoids a drawn-out and painful death.
But Stanwyk’s picked the wrong guy. Fletch starts investigating Stanwyk, disguising himself as, among other things, a doctor, SEC investigator, and an aeroplane mechanic. He’s not particularly convincing, and no one ever seems totally sucked in by him, but he gets the information he needs. Chevy unleashes a constant stream of one-liners, a lot of them funny, but most of them with an identical delivery which starts to blunt their effect.
The mystery to be solved is interesting, but it never breaks through Chevy’s constant joking. There’s only one scene that creates a sense of dread befitting the plot. Joe Don Baker, the crooked Police Chief, tries to get Chevy off the drug story by taking him to the cells and threatening to shoot him. It’s the only scene where Fletch think he’s in any sort of danger, the rest of the time he’s almost tiresomely cavalier about the whole thing.
It’s a shame that this film went almost totally for laughs. If you’re not a huge Chevy fan his character will grow tiresome very soon. A bit more modulation in Fletch’s character could have made this more than just a Chevy Chase vehicle. Fletch is a good mystery trying to escape from an average comedy.
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