Confess, Fletch (2022)

Rated R for mostly murder, but some sex, language, and innuendo as well.  There's also some drug use.  The sex doesn't actually show any nudity, but it is still a bit graphic for a hot second.  Most of the drug use happens off camera.  The language is there and present, but doesn't really go out of its way to offend.  Here's how R-rated it is.  With a slight edit, this movie could easily go to a PG-13.  Still, I'm not editing this movie, so enjoy the fact that it is an R.

DIRECTOR:  Greg Mottola

Do you know how much I wanted to watch this movie for a long time?  It was on my Netflix DVD queue for ages.  Now that Netflix DVD is dying, I thought I would have to give up on this.  Then I was walking through the library and saw it there.  I showed my wife the trailer to see if she wanted to watch it with me and there was a banner, "Watch this on Paramount+".  So I went from having no way to really watch this movie to having too many ways to watch the movie. 

I wanted to watch this movie enough to binge the other two Fletch movies.  Fletch movies fall into a very specific subgenre that I take absolute delight in: the comedic murder mystery.  I mean, I'm not running over to Netflix to watch Murder Mystery or anything like that.  I just really like jokes in the face of the macabre.  It's actually weird that I didn't sit down and watch the first two Fletch movies earlier because they're mostly up my alley.  But it's stuff like this and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang that push a specific button that is so perfect.  I think what really sold me on Confess, Fletch is Jon Hamm in a comedic role.  As good of a dramatic actor as Hamm is, it's his comedic chops that bring joy to my life.  Honestly, he hasn't dropped the ball once comedically.  (Mind you, it's not like I've seen the complete work of Jon Hamm.  But what I've seen?  Chef's kiss!)  Also, I like Jon Hamm more than Chevy Chase.  I hear that Hamm might be problematic as well, but I don't know enough yet that I'm just going to sit here and enjoy my ignorance until I start eventually rallying against him.  I don't know what it is when dramatic actors dip their toes into comedic roles.  It mostly works.  (I can't stand by any of this.  I'm thinking of Jon Hamm and Robert DeNiro, and I know that DeNiro's later comedy stuff doesn't necessarily work.) 

But does Confess, Fletch work as a mystery on its own? I mean, kinda.  The thing about Fletch movies is that they aren't necessarily great mystery stories.  But Confess, Fletch does someting real weird:  it doesn't let Fletch solve the crime.  There's this thing about the subgenre where we understand that, as goofy as the protagonist is, he's supposed to be smarter than the characters who are supposed to be experts at this.  Instead, Morris and Griz, the cops in the movie who have the job to solve the crime, actually solve it.  Now, it's not saying that Fletch did nothing in this movie.  That's not entirely fair.  Fletch, in Confess, gathers all of the clues, but doesn't put them together.  He actually misinterprets everything.  I don't know if Morris and Griz would have solved it without Fletch, but the ending is an uprooting of expectations.  Now, part of me loves the chaos that ensues.  I was not ready for Fletch to get out of his problem due to happenstance.  I love when a film subverts expectations, but there might be a reason for an expectation to exist.  It was so odd.  The moment where the protagonist proves that he's better than the system that is holding him back the entire movie, that moment is cathartic.  I almost feel like I need to come to some kind of closure with this movie that I never get.  But the movie has a very good point.

Fletch isn't actually all that smart.  He simply keeps being in the right place at the right time.  There is one element about Fletch that I love, but it's just because I'm wired to like it.  Fletch is this kind of guy who makes these long term plans that come back into play later in the films.  You tend to be excited to see how his scheming plays out.  In this case, it's a van.  It's oddly one of my favorite parts of the movie.  He hires these two artists to mark up the van  and I was waiting for the payoff on that van.  But the van is ultimately unnecessary outside of being a way to structure a film.  And that's what I kind of realize.  Now, I've never read any of the Fletch novels.  I really doubt that I ever will read a Fletch novel.  I mean, I've done my due diligence and I've got so many books to read, do you think I'm going to jump to a series of (probably forgotten) books that I'm only okay with the movies of?  Who knows?  I read some really dumb stuff sometimes.  For all I know, the books are way smarter than the movies.

But do you really watch Fletch movies for the mysteries?  I mean, I'll swear up and down that The Thin Man movies are fabulous, but I also remember the mysteries not making a lick of actual sense.  Instead, we're in these kinds of movies for the charisma and the lack of seriousness in the face of certain death.  In terms of characterization, Confess, Fletch is absolutely rad.  Fletch is the child of James Bond.  Sean Connery saying that the car was "on its way to a funeral" opened the door to a notion that a leading man could drop a one liner and write off a moment that would have scarred us for life.  Fletch is that moment over and over again.  He's an investigative journalist who shouldn't be held at gunpoint.  He shouldn't be finding dead bodies all willy-nilly.  But that's simply a central conceit to these movies.  It really comes down to the leading man and the direction behind these films.  I dont' think that many movies depend on the charisma of a film more than Fletch movies.  Like I mentioned, Jon Hamm has it in spades.  Not only that, but his Fletch, as goofy as it is, seems more grounded than Chevy Chase's.  

Maybe that's why my in-laws prefer Chase.  I mean, Chase is also form their generation, so I realize I was fighting an uphill battle recommending Jon Hamm.  But Chase's Fletch is kind of absurd.  I'm sorry that's a dealbreaker.  But I feel like Chevy Chase really wanted Fletch to be his style of humor.  Who am I to blame him?  It's his character.  He can do what he wants.  Chase's Fletch is this guy who puts on absurd costumes and, for some reason or other, has elaborate and racist dreams.  It's either that he's in the NBA or a slaveowner.  Maybe Jon Hamm's Fletch is one for the 24th Century.  I mean, let's establish a baseline really fast:  Hamm's Fletch is Chase's Fletch.  They have the same outlook.  It just feels like Hamm's Fletch is a character and Chase's Fletch has too many opportunities to appeal to his style of humor.  Maybe it is an ego thing.  Knowing that Chevy Chase is one of comedy's biggest egos has tainted the way that I watch the things he makes.  But Hamm, I forget that I'm watching Jon Hamm at times.  Not so much that I didn't constantly say, "Man,  I love Jon Hamm."  But it's like he got the root of the character.

Now, I have every right to duck out of this blog.  In fact, part of me almost says that it is a good idea.  But I also know that I would be disappointed if I didn't write about this blog a little more.  Sometimes --and usually it isn't so self-aware --I completely abandon anything evaluative in the film and I just write a critical response essay.  I want to talk a bit about the morality of Fletch.  The easiest jump to make would be D&D alignment, but I can't claim to be an expert.  Knee jerk reaction?  Chaotic good. Fletch absolutely is an agent of chaos.  That might be why I'm so flummoxed by the "cops being the heroes" ending of the movie because it seems like the treatis of Confess, Fletch (not Fletch Lives) is chaotic good versus lawful good.  What makes Fletch chaotic is that there is nothing necessarily tying him to the events.  It's almost the randomness of these crimes is what intrigues him.  I always put him as "chaotic good" because these moments of good.  But part of what might not make him a force for good is the concept that Fletch is almost acting out of self-interest, rather than good.

Don't get me wrong. Fletch, given no degree of profit, would probably ultimately choose the greater good.  Heck, even with some profit, he still chooses the greater good, as shown by the offers he gets in the first movie.  But he constantly reminds everyone in Confess that he's retired.  There's almost no reason for him to be doing any of these things.  Instead, Fletch almost profits from the mythos that he himself created.  There's a passive giddiness that comes from finding that dead body.  Fletch profits primarily from knowing that he's the smartest guy in the room.  I mean, it's the same thing that comes from Sherlock Holmes.  Maybe there's something about the master detective / wizard archetype that thrives in the knowledge that he will eventaully solve a problem that most people would shy away from.  But unlike Sherlock Holmes, Fletch is outside society.  He almost lacks a cast of characters because his way of life doesn't really need a supporting cast.  Sure, it's nice to see John Slatterly and Jon Hamm team up again, but Frank Jaffe is almost there for fan service in the book.  He doesn't really need this character.  It's almost like the motivation for Fletch is an attempt to cure boredom.  

Look at Fletch's needs.  The movie ends with him sleeping on a hammock on a dirty old boat.  Yes, he has the money to buy something nicer.  But Fletch's entire existence thrives on the balance between "lazy alcoholic" and "super sleuth."  Mind you, since I'm going to "No True Scotsman" this argument, it might be another reason why I hate the slave owner fantasy in Fletch Lives, besides the blatant racism behind it.  Fletch is a lazy dude who tries to do as little work as possible unless it involves sleuthing.  Also, Fletch's entire M.O. involves him sticking his nose into things that tend to get him into trouble.  In all the Fletch movies, he angers authority which draws attention to himself.  

Now, given all of these concepts, his casual attitude towards the dead in Confess, Fletch brings about something sociopathic.  He has a "must be Tuesday" attitude towards dead bodies.  He knows that he should be cooperative with the police.  But his devil-may-care attitude actually impedes him.  I'm going to break from the schema that my brain is holding onto and look at the metatext for a second.  Fletch has to be a punk to the police because it is funny for us.  Remember, Fletch doesn't have an audience in the world of the text.  He's telling jokes to an audience of two: Morris and Griz.  But for our sake, we need him to tell as many jokes at the expense of the cops as possible.  I am not saying that Fletch needs to cooperate with the police, but there's quiet and tonally approprate and deliberately making life hard for oneself.  But let's get back into the world of Fletch.  Fletch almost winds them up to make the chase more interesting.  Am I saying that Morris and Griz wouldn't suspect Fletch regardless of behavior?  I don't know.  But Fletch almost needs the extra complication of becoming the lead suspect in this murder mystery.  (It now dawns on me that someone knows Fletch so well that they knew that he would report the crime and insert himself into the investigation.) 

So I enjoy Fletch movies.  Even my rambling about not picking up another book franchise (you should see how many franchises I'm in the middle of), maybe Fletch novels might be readable.  But I'm kind of just glad these movies exist.  I will never be a fan of them.  But they are a good two hour nonsense mystery comedy that hits the buttons the way they should be hit.