Kiss Kiss Bang Bang makes confusion part of its comic personality. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer give the sharp dialogue enough friction to keep its self-conscious storytelling entertaining.
Spoiler-free review.
Robert Downey Jr. gives Kiss Kiss Bang Bang the right kind of nervous momentum. Harry can sound confident for a moment and immediately expose how little control he has. The performance makes the narration feel like another thing liable to go wrong. That is a useful fit for a film that enjoys interrupting its own explanations.
Val Kilmer provides an excellent contrast. His impatience gives Downey’s verbal energy something solid to bounce against. Shane Black’s dialogue works because the exchange has a clear imbalance: one person would like to continue talking, while the other would prefer him to become useful. The irritation is a large part of the appeal.
The crime-story construction is knowingly tangled, and the film gets a lot of comedy from attempts to explain it. I liked that it does not make fluency a guarantee of understanding. Michelle Monaghan gives the central group another point of resistance. The relationships help keep the plot from becoming only an exercise in clever arrangement.
Some jokes lean on an abrasiveness that will not work equally well for everyone, and the self-commentary occasionally draws attention away from the scene. Still, the performances give the writing a lively human rhythm. I enjoyed it most when the mystery became another reason for these people to misunderstand and irritate one another.
2005 · English. Film details · Film details
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang makes confusion part of its comic personality. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer give the sharp dialogue enough friction to keep its self-conscious storytelling entertaining.
— Desly