Review - 'Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans'

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, and Val Kilmer Directed by Werner Herzog Rated R

Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is not much like the 1991 Abel Ferrera film Bad Lieutenant, no matter how similar the names. In fact, Port of Call New Orleans isn't much like anything, really. Is that a good thing? In this case, it actually is. There's some abiguity about the actions of our bad lieutenant that you'd probably prefer to be better explained by Herzog, and there are definitely some directorial decisions that are a little strange, but it's hard not to roll with the punches overall, even if they almost always come out of nowhere. Port of Call New Orleans is over the top through and through, and when that's the design, there's only one actor you should consider: Nicolas Cage. And although Cage can be as awful as any major star in Hollywood when he's unhinged and left to his own devices, that kind of insanity is unmistakably the right call here, with Cage embodying a police officer bound by his mountain of debts, both financial and moral, while spiraling further out of control while under the influence of lots and lots of drugs. You can go back to Cage's Oscar-winning work in Leaving Las Vegas to see a different way Cage can capture this kind of bankrupt desperation. His Terrence McDonagh (the character name is another leftover from the 1991 movie) is so completely manic that you don't know where the drugs begin and the self-awareness leaves off. Is he acting like this because he's so edge or is he so on edge because the drugs are making him act this way? Cage manages to keep it in the same ballpark, which is usually a measure of success for a performance as whacked-out as this, and the result is one of his most effective performances in years. Because he's a cop, there are cop things to deal with: Corruption, investigations, hookers. The hooker is Eva Mendes, who is mostly wasted. She's also McDonagh's girlfriend, a relationship that should either be more complicated or left out completely. Actually, none of that stuff matters much, but it all gives Cage a chance to take his character in peculiar directions. There are hallucinations stemming from the drug binges, and it gets to the point that you're not entirely sure what's real and what's not. Whether he knew it or not (but come on, he's Werner Herzog, for crying out loud), Herzog does his story a good deed by spending dubious amounts of time giving close-ups to iguanas and baby crocodiles. It may be hard to understand that, but trust me, it's even harder to explain. The film can't go on this way forever, of course, and eventually, McDonagh's instincts as a cop start to prevail (unconsciously?) over his bizarre actions. Oh, he still shakes down club kids for drugs and he still gambles to excess, but something inside him starts to take over, reminding the creature he's become of the reasons he was a policeman in the first place, even if that line is still blurred. That's why the little ambiguity at the end troubled me to the degree it did. We're left wondering what of McDonagh's lost weekend stayed with him, or if he's just figured out how to cover it up with a badge. Maybe that lack of clarity is its own answer.

Comments

[Emo]

Can't find it it Oklahoma yet....

[Dale]

Great review. Hey, how 'bout that actor what plays Lt. Stoyer?

[Tjei]

Cage couldn't hold the movie. When he's at Xzibit's house in the shoot him again his soul's still dancing, he finally breaks down and spoils it all. The film wasn't very good because it wasn't very interesting or interesting enough. Boring even. Cage is never interesting so it kinda holds together.