The Long Goodbye Review

For years and years, my only interaction with the work of Elliot Gould had been his long running guest appearances in Friends. It seems rather coincidental that my first Gould film was also my first film directed by the great Robert Altman. A pairing that would presumably eclipse any notion that film could get better than this, I headed into The Long Goodbye with exceedingly high hopes for the pairing and a love for mystery noir films, coupled with a need to expand my knowledge of said genres.

Well, it certainly wasn’t what I had expected. The Long Goodbye throws us into the middle of Detective Philip Marlowe’s life as he attempts to help a friend accused of murdering his wife. It’s a rather straightforward plot with an inundated list of events that could be potentially explored. Marlowe has a few interesting facets of exposed originality. His character treads the line between the suave characteristics of the atypical American hero, whilst at the same time has enough private demons and downfalls to fully flesh him out as a character. The Long Goodbye doesn’t explore these as much as I’d have liked it, with Gould’s performance for the opening scenes mainly focusing on finding his cat.

Gould as a performer isn’t really something I’m all that big a fan of either. He provides a serviceable performance here, one that sees us through the film as safely as possible. My main issue is the lack of charm or charisma on display, and I’m not entirely convinced Gould’s representation of the rebellious hero that finds himself in over his head is all that great or even much use here. He has flickers of interest though, and there is depth to his character, yet shamefully it doesn’t feel like it’s explored in an interesting enough manner.

That seemed to be a sadly common theme throughout, and The Long Goodbye does reach a state of being a rather boring product. Nowhere close to the encapsulating highs it could’ve been, but never dipping into anything worse than mediocrity. Altman’s direction is solid enough though, but I imagine his other works will give more of a sense toward his unique abilities and talent. Here, he allows the story plenty of room to breathe, keeping a steady hand on where our characters inevitably end up. He keeps the mediocrity tightly bound together, which I guess is at least somewhat redeeming.

The Long Goodbye certainly wasn’t the film I was hoping it would be. High expectations may have killed this one off for me somewhat, but it wasn’t without its merits from time to time. Gould and Altman let me down slightly, but I’m sure they’re providers of ample work in other films. Still, it does sting a bit that The Long Goodbye is a frigid, straightforward affair that doesn’t really have all that much to offer.