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“True Confessions” contains scenes that are as good as a scene can be, which is why the film leaves so much to be desired. The ending fails completely because the filmmakers seem to have been so focused on every second of the film, that no one thought about what the actual story was. Watching a poorly made film with so many unanswered questions is just sad.
The film follows two brothers, a priest and a policeman. Robert De Niro’s performance as the priest and Robert Duvall’s performance as the cop showcase great casting, although one would expect them to be the other way around. Nevertheless, Duvall pulls it off as a sleazy, wall-faced cop. After a scene or two, we somehow manage to accept De Niro as a priest even though he seems too young for a monsignor.
The brothers live in Los Angeles in the year 1948.
It is Los Angeles, which most folks would find recognizable if they seen movies like Chinatown or Farewell, My Lovely. This is almost a small village in which even the grifters and the power-brokers know one another and, here and there, are each other. The deeper you cut in examining the storyline of this movie, the more engaging it becomes. At first glance, it focuses on a rather disturbing character by the name of Amsterdam, a self-proclaimed construction mogul with roots in the sordid trade of sex work. Both brothers have had interactions with the guy. While a vice cop, Duvall assisted in the security of Amsterdam’s whorehouses. De Niro now serves as the cardinal’s eyes and ears and manages the construction activities of the Orthodox Church in Los Angeles. While his business is mysterious and dubious, Amsterdam is awarded most of the tenders for new schools and hospitals.
It is not only scandalous, as it is, with the ample corruption in the enterprise, but more so when the tragic death of a young woman has her body discovered chopped in half. As it turns out, Duvall’s investigation reveals a former Madame as well as a seedy LA porn director, but not without a hidden agenda. Certain evidence eventually leads right back to the most obvious suspect, Amsterdam.
Write about this: Amsterdam worked the case with the girl, who was halfway through hitchhiking to her destination and got picked up by a business associate. When he gave her a ride in his car, De Niro was also a passenger. The reason why the newspapers are carrying news about the ‘virgin tramp’ is because the monsignore once carpooled with her. Why does this even matter? The source of all the annoyances within “True Confessions” stems from an inexplicable level of unneeded and overboard paranoia that renders innocent loopholes to be as dangerous as sinister plots.
In the portion of the film that focuses on the cop, he is depicted as a man willing to take a bribe, which serves as the film’s emotional center. He has a moral edge stronger than his brother. For example, the monsignor isn’t above using a church as a front to fleece widows and orphans. What starts gnawing at Duvall is that this Amsterdam, who has been dubbed Catholic Layman of the Year, is a sleazy opportunist and ex-pimp. Duvall couldn’t care less: The guy is such slime he should be arrested on general principles.
“True Confessions” takes a lot of effort to set everything up but, in the end, nothing gets resolved. What we get instead are pointless prologues and epilogues where the two brothers, now with gray hair and sighing philosophically about death, look at the events of the story with tragedy and irony whatever that means.
We are not given any clues since this is not a thriller. I guess we are supposed to assume that it is a meditation on man’s corruption. Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, who adapted his novel into a screenplay, portray social institutions in their tale as mere the resting places of hypocrite, fatigued and defeated men. But they never complete the task the set out to do. For instance the movie contains a major subplot featuring an elderly priest (Burgess Meredith) who is being placed out to pasture. There is something he definitely symbolizes, especially because De Niro in his younger years gets to do the dirty work of sacking him. But this story is never dealt with in the movie. It is just left hanging there.
Like with the entire movie, at “True Confessions,” we are left hanging.
It’s mostly a well-crafted film, from the characters to the time period to the relationships, everything was clearly and meticulously laid out. But as much as I appreciate the film, I can’t say it has any intent to make an argument or demonstrate a point. Instead, it exercised great skill with style and nothing more.
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