a5c7b9f00b A female PI babysitting for a boyfriend gets stuck with his daughter and the case of her murdered father. Victoria &quot;V.I&quot; Warshawski is a Chicago based private detective who agrees to babysit for her new boyfriend; then he is murdered. Being the detective type, she makes the murder her next case. In doing so she befriends the victim&#39;s daughter, Kat, and together they set out to crack the case. I like this movie, in spite of being a fan of Sara Peretsky&#39;s novels. Good acting all around and I especially enjoyed the little girl&#39;s foul-mouthed interaction with V.I. Some of the feminist overtones are overdone. One main note, though. Kathleen Turner was badly miscastWarshawski. She is simply too beautiful, too elegant, to be V.I. Warshawski. Warshawski is much more average-looking, not ugly by any means, but definitely not beautiful. Turner put in a very good performance, but a different actress would have been more believable. V.I. Warshawski is essentially a macho film with the exception of the sex of the lead character. Kathleen Turner portrays the titular character, a tough-talking and independent Chicago private detective. Not only does she solve a case in the film, she gets herself into a lot of violent confrontationswell, from people who constantly want to foil her investigative findings concerning the inheritance of a shipping industry. Incredibly, Turner is able to stand toe-to-toe with her male counterparts. She is impressively gruff, tough, seasoned, and weary.<br/><br/>There are good and bad elements in the film. As written, the characters&#39; mannerisms and dialogues are too mannered, cute, and artificial. Everyone seems to be wisecracking, yelling, and acting tough all the time. I know that&#39;s a common fixture of characters of the detective genre, but it&#39;s just too much and too insincere. Some of the characters are quirky but they aren&#39;t three-dimensional. There&#39;s no shortage of stock, sleazy, and mean spirited characters. I don&#39;t care deeply for the characters. They are merely pawns and not fully fleshed out. The film is heavy on dialogue and plot but it could have benefited from more heartfelt and intimate moments, suchexploring the characters&#39; relationships with one another and exploring the inner depths of characters. We rarely glimpse beneath the characters&#39; tough superficial layer and wisecracks. At times, the dialogue is stilted and awkward. There are a lot of feeble attempts at humor and one liners that are quite crude, lame, and inappropriate. The mystery isn&#39;tintriguing or sophisticatedit should be. It&#39;s easy to figure out where the story is goingthere aren&#39;t much surprises. The villains aren&#39;t very threatening either. By the end of the film, I still have questions that are left unanswered. I do however, enjoy Turner&#39;s gradual rapport with Kat (the young actress overplays the part though), the daughter of a murdered hockey player and who seems to be the key to solving the mystery.<br/><br/>At times, the film does display a quirky sense of humor that works,evident in certain jokes and sight gags. There are also some interesting and high energy set pieces. However, some of these scenes detract from the main plot and have a juvenile mentality to them.<br/><br/>Whereas other films have been successful and intriguing in their takes on the film noir and detective genre (e.g. Night Moves, Chinatown), V.I. Warshawski is not inspired.
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