THE STORY – Joe Diamond, a man haunted by his past, uses his exceptional wit and keen observation skills to uncover hidden truths and solve crimes in this contemporary noir tale.
THE CAST – Andy Garcia, Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Patrick, Bill Murray, Rosemarie DeWitt, Danny Huston & Vicky Krieps
THE TEAM – Andy Garcia (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 118 Minutes
It’s the city of angels. How dangerous can it be?”
Andy Garcia has spent decades building a career as an actor, drawn to old-school romanticism and characters who carry deep reservoirs of longing beneath carefully maintained, tough exteriors. It perhaps makes sense that, at age 70, his feature directorial debut, “Diamond,” should feel equally obsessed with the past, not merely as nostalgia but as a place of refuge, expression, and comfort. A neo-noir set in modern Los Angeles, “Diamond” follows Joe Diamond, an urban legend and private investigator with a knack for solving crimes even the police cannot crack. Yet Garcia’s film is far more interested in the emotional burdens people carry, whether that’s the people Diamond is investigating or himself, than in the mechanics of mystery. A project Garcia has reportedly been developing for nearly two decades, “Diamond” often plays like a personal love letter to classic noir cinema, old Hollywood Los Angeles, and the men who live so completely in fantasy that reality eventually becomes impossible for them to face. While the film’s structure is uneven and occasionally frustrating, Garcia’s sincere affection for the material and his entertaining central performance give it undeniable charm.
The film opens from inside Joe Diamond’s (Andy Garcia) plain, brick-walled apartment in Los Angeles. We see him put on his suit and fedora, drink a small amount of whiskey to kick off the day, play his record player, and equip himself with a watch and a little money, but no cellphone, as he narrates his life to the audience via voiceover. What does this guy think it’s 1942 or something? In fact, it’s not until he steps outside and comes across a trendy new car on the streets of downtown Los Angeles that we realize Joe Diamond is a man living psychologically in an entirely different time. He believes and acts like he’s some gumshoe detective from the classic hard-boiled noir films of decades ago. He even drives a classic vehicle himself from the area to get around town. He has a private office with a secretary and uses older-style phones to communicate. There’s a bit of an urban legend about him that many talk about on social media, but he wouldn’t know because he doesn’t have it. He helps the cops solve crimes with his old-fashioned tactics, street smarts, and uncanny ability to charm people.
Joe’s latest case centers on Sharon Cobbs (Vicky Krieps), a wealthy woman whose husband has been murdered. The police, led by Brendan Fraser’s Danny (or “Danny Boy” as Diamond calls him–he seemingly has a nickname for everybody) McVicar, view the case as an open-and-shut one, where they immediately have Sharon listed as the prime suspect. But Joe thinks otherwise, not just because Sharon is paying him but just because his instincts, which he’s relied on in the past to positive effect, tell him otherwise. On paper, it sounds like familiar noir territory. Still, Garcia uses the detective framework mostly to create amusing character interactions, pay homage to an atmosphere rarely seen in contemporary cinema, and, eventually, deliver something more melancholy beneath Joe’s curated persona.
His dry humor tickles other characters around Joe. Danny Boy doesn’t like him meddling in official police business when it seems it might clash with their investigation, but he’s also open to help if it means producing the results he wants. If anything, he gets a kick out of just being around Joe Diamond. So does his “lawyer” and bartender Jimbo (Bill Murray), and Dr. Harry Kleiman (Dustin Hoffman), a local coroner who likes to tell jokes. Each of them has their own specific relationship with Diamond, and everyone takes him at face value, for as ridiculous as his persona may be to some, there’s no denying that when tasked with a case, Joe Diamond is good at his job, and just plain ol’ fun to be around. Garcia has assembled a fantastic group of actors around him, including Demián Bichir as the Cobbs’s gardener, Alberto Echevarria, Yul Vazquez as Sharon’s personal Butler, and Rosemarie DeWitt as Angel, a mysterious woman who fancies Joe. While none of them deliver top-tier work (this is Garcia’s show ultimately), they all fit into the vision Garcia has for this movie.
Garcia revealed that the character originated nearly twenty years ago while helping his daughter with a high school assignment involving Raymond Chandler and noir storytelling. Interestingly, some of the voiceover narration and scenes improvised during that exercise survived all the way into the finished film. It makes sense because Joe is less like a traditionally written detective and more like someone Garcia has lived with for years. The character possesses a looseness and lived-in quality that suggests someone continuously evolving inside the filmmaker’s imagination. Garcia also repeatedly discussed Los Angeles as a central character in the film, and “Diamond” reflects that philosophy throughout. Shot across dozens of locations in just twenty-five days, Garcia and cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt attempt to evoke the visual language of classic noir through natural lighting and practical sources, drawing inspiration from artists such as Edward Hopper and photographers such as Fan Ho. There are moments where that ambition succeeds nicely. Downtown Los Angeles is photographed with affection, creating a visual palette that feels caught between the past and the present.
The jazzy score by Arturo Sandoval and Garcia himself gives the film a sense like it’s set in a different period. There’s a light, comforting rhythm to the film, as it’s not violent and doesn’t dwell on much darkness. Sandoval’s muted trumpet and classic jazz cues create a dreamlike atmosphere, reinforcing Joe’s psychological distance from the current world around him. Despite Garcia’s loving attempts to craft something nostalgic and unique, “Diamond” struggles to maintain its narrative momentum. There’s a scene where Diamond gets roughed up that the audience never sees and only finds out about in its aftermath, leading them to wonder if it’s misdirection (spoiler- it’s not), leading to a jarring shift in the tone once it’s revealed why Joe is the way he is in the present day. The film is caught in a limbo, attempting to adhere to genre conventions while also going against them. It’s a bit sloppily constructed outside of the initial premise, which does hold a lot of promise in the beginning, but midway through the film, it loses momentum and doesn’t build to an exciting climax where it seems like the mounting pressure from Danny Huston’s Bruce Tenenbaum (the Cobbs’s lawyer) or McVicar is going to result in the stakes getting raised for Diamond. Instead, the film unexpectedly reveals itself to be a character piece all along, one about escaping reality, and if it had been pulled off better, it should’ve landed with more impact than it ultimately does. I’m sure there’s an older generation that will recognize Garcia’s intent and roll with it more, but there’s no denying that something got lost amid his attachment to the material.
Garcia, though, to his credit, delivers a delightful performance when he’s in pure Joe Diamond mode, even later in the film when he has to emote more of Joe’s internal struggles; there is a sadness in Garcia’s performance that is relatable, nuanced, and heartbreaking. That vulnerability nearly saves “Diamond.” It may be sloppily assembled and lose its footing after its initial setup. Still, Garcia’s affection for this strange detective character and the old Hollywood world surrounding him is undeniably sincere. Like Joe himself, the film often feels out of time, a little lost, occasionally messy, but very difficult not to root for.
