tabuno Review of The Poison Rose

The Poison Rose (2019)

Overblown or Underblown Film Noir that Does Not Do Actors Justice

[5/10 · 3 January 2022]

Starring an impressive cast including John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Famke Janssen, Brendan Fraser, and Robert Patrick. This want a be film noir tries too hard with its more wordy than usual voice over of John Travolta and the efforts to make this movie into some sort of Maltese Falcon (1941), The Long Goodbye (1973), China Town (1974), Fargo (1996), L. A. Confidential (1997), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), or Gone Baby Gone (2007). The script has too much thrown into the plot along with unconvincing gunfights. Instead a simplified script that allowed the actors to really shine would have been much better. Oddly enough Brendan Fraser, the Doc, gets the best character from which to show off his out of character star persona. The Poison Rose starts to show promise a third of the way in but then sort of collapses under its own weight to a more ambivalent but cliché ending. A more thoughtful script would have greater improved the movie and performances.