“However cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, your reflection always looks you straight in the eye.”

Drew’s rating: Don’t tell your parents, but this film just took your mind’s virginity. And it wasn’t gentle.

Drew’s review: I’m not a particularly superstitious person. But when, in the course of a week, I come across references to a movie I’ve never heard of before from two completely unrelated sources, I figure maybe, just maybe the universe is trying to nudge me in the direction of my next review. I’m glad I listened.

It’s 1955 and Harry Angel (Rourke) is a dick — that’s private detective to you — who’s been retained on a missing persons case. It seems Johnny Favorite, a popular crooner from the ’40s, disappeared in the wake of World War II owing an unspecified debt to the mysterious Louis Cyphre (DeNiro). Naturally Cyphre would like him found if he’s still alive, so Harry’s on the case, one that will take him from the grimy streets of Brooklyn to the haunting tapestry that is New Orleans. The main problem along the way is that every lead Harry meets turns up dead immediately after, which does not fail to attract police attention. Harry’s only chance to clear his name is to find Favorite, who by all accounts was a complete S.O.B., and hope that doing so brings some answers. It just may at that, but will they be answers Harry wants to hear?

Rather than dance around the issue, let’s confront it head on: Angel Heart has a twist ending, one I’m not going to spoil. I’d advise against popping on over to Wikipedia to check it out if you have any interest in seeing this movie… it’s definitely the kind of reveal that carries more weight when experienced firsthand. The rest of the movie does a nice job of crafting a slowly mounting sense of dread until everything erupts in the climax. For all his occasional wisecracks, Rourke makes Harry Angel seem like a pretty bleak guy, never really connecting to the people with whom he interacts. He’s entertaining without being overwhelmingly likable, a noir trademark. Speaking of which, the film succeeds at showing him to be a pretty good detective, whether it’s wiping down everything he touched after finding a dead body (simple, but so often overlooked), or deducing that a transfer order was doctored because ballpoint pens didn’t exist in 1943.

But Rourke can’t carry the movie alone, and he’s fortunate that DeNiro takes a character who could easily descend into parody and instills him with an air of subtle but constant menace. The fingernails are over the top, but otherwise Cyphre just seems like a soft-spoken man whom it’s clear you Do Not Want To Mess With. As for Epiphany Proudfoot… well, it helps that Lisa Bonet always seems a bit ephemeral to me. I don’t mean physically, but when she’s talking, she gives off this disengaged vibe like she’s actually thinking about some dream she had last night. As such, it’s an inspired casting choice, and I guess my only complaint is that I don’t really feel the chemistry between her and Harry.

At least, not until that one infamous scene, and I don’t think it’s spoiling much to say that the sex between Harry and Epiphany is not just graphic (read: don’t watch with your mom around), but also freaky as hell. You may well enjoy the early stages, but if you’re still turned on by the end, I’d suggest getting professional help. It’s also fitting, as Harry’s frantic movements underscore the fact that we’re rapidly approaching the film’s climax, and by this point you’re hopefully as eager for resolution to the case as Harry himself is.

It’s sometimes hard to know what to make of genre-crossing films because they have to be judged by two sets of criteria. Angel Heart is more noir than horror, in that we see the aftermath of deaths rather than watching them occur in front of us. Still, there is definite psychological terror building throughout and (spoiler!) even a little supernatural flavor before all is said and done. (In that vein, I’m sad to report that 1980’s technology lends just a little cheesiness to an otherwise satisfying conclusion.) It’s a movie that will almost certainly leave you entertained, if more than a little disturbed. If you’re any kind of a fan of detective fiction and/or horror, you really owe it to yourself to find out what happened to Johnny Favorite.

Intermission:

• Angel Heart is based on the novel “Falling Angel” by William Hjortsberg.
• The end credits are interspersed with brief scenes showing what ultimately happens to Johnny Favorite.
• Lisa Bonet received negative backlash for portraying Epiphany Proudfoot, particularly the extremely graphic sex scene, since at the time she was a cast member on family-friendly The Cosby Show. In fact, they had to trim part of the scene to take it from an “X” to an “R” rating.

Groovy Quotes:

Harry: I gotta find Johnny Goldentonsils, we don’t know where he is, he probably doesn’t know who he is. I got a geriatric band leader at a home in Harlem, I got a guitar player called Toots Sweet. What else I got?

Connie: A hard-on.

Harry: Listen, what do you do around here in the summertime?
Izzy: I bite the heads off of rats.
Harry: What do you do in the winter?
Izzy: Same.

Epiphany: Hey, what are you after him for? Johnny Favorite?
Harry: I’m not really after him. I’m just being paid to find out where he is.
Epiphany: He could be six feet under.
Harry: Then I’ll have to buy a shovel.

Toots: I remember Spider. He used to play them drums like two jackrabbits [screwin’].

Harry: How did he die?
Cop: Technically? Asphyxiation by his own genitalia.
Harry: But not so technically?
Cop: Somebody cut his [junk] off, stuffed it in his mouth and choked him to death.

Cyphre: They say there’s just enough religion in the world to make men hate one another, but not enough to make them love.

Cyphre: Are you an atheist?
Harry: Yes, I am. I’m from Brooklyn.

Cyphre: Alas. How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise.

Cyphre: However cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, your reflection always looks you straight in the eye.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Silent Hill
• Jacob’s Ladder
• Sin City