L.A. Confidential

L.A. Confidential is excellent. The characters are intriguing, which really makes the story worth watching. Time is taken to develop them, and it pays off. There are also moments where the audience is allowed to see the thoughts of the characters in order to solidify the references to previous moments in the film. At over two hours, that's a welcome touch. Fortunately, the plot, adapted from the James Ellroy novel, is very carefully organized so that the two hours keep a fairly steady pace.

Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito offer solid performances, but nothing too far out of their normal range. I found Russell Crowe to be very convincing. Guy Pearce was also very good, but he looks so much like Val Kilmer that I couldn't help but be distracted by the resemblance. James Cromwell, so famous as the nearly wordless farmer in Babe, gets to demonstrate his speaking skills.