Making Fletch Happen

They just don't make this kind of movie anymore: Confess, Fletch (2022). This is basically a minor comedy in a semi-forgotten franchise, with a few name actors, just being charming and a little goofy. It's entertaining, fun but almost forgettable. It seems like there should be dozens of movies like this every year, but instead it's a rarity.

John Hamm is Fletch. He enters a nice Boston apartment with Miros and Chagalls on the walls. He pours himself a drink, then finds a dead woman on the living room floor. He calls the police.

The police that show up are Roy Wood Jr. as Detective "Slo-Mo" Monroe and Ayden Mayiri as trainee detective Griz (short for Grizelda). He explains that he is renting the apartment while he investigates some stolen paintings. His girlfriend in Rome (Lorenza Izzo) is daughter to a count who has a nice art collection and a new wife who likes to be called "Contessa". 

Since some of the paintings have shown up in Boston, Fletch has been staking it out. He is a retired investigative journalist, so that's the kind of thing he does. The police don't hold him, but consider him a suspect. He considers them to be a goof - he loves tweaking Wood for having a crying baby at home, and Griz for being a rookie. 

He meets up with Kyle McLachlan, an art dealer, who offers to sell him one of the missing paintings, a Picasso. This is because Hamm is pretending to be a rich buyer. He also buys a cheap van and has it graffitied up (this doesn't pay off as well as you might hope). He interviews a woman who lives next to the apartment. She's Annie Mumolo, a dope-smoking messy bad cook with a very unsanitary dog. There was something very Massachusetts about her. 

Eventually, the Contessa (Marcia Gay Harden) shows up and moves in with Fletch, following him into the bathroom and climbing into his bed, while telling him to stop trying to seduce her. Of course, his girlfriend finds out and comes out from Rome to make sure it's all on the up and up. And through out, Hamm is tracking down the paintings and trying to find out who murdered the girl.

We, on the other hand, did not particularly care about the paintings or the dead girl. We were just along for the ride.

Fletch is an interesting character. He doesn't like wearing shoes or authority. He lies with gleeful abandon. He gives a fake name to the graffiti artists, and when they ask him his name again, he just says, "I don't know, what did I tell you?" He's also fairly irresistible to women, which Hamm plays very well.

We enjoyed the first Chevy Chase Fletch, and maybe his second. Hamm plays it different, a little more realistic and less goofy. I also read a few of the books, by Gregory MacDonald, and enjoyed them at first. But they got a little nihilistic, especially the endings. Here, I should note that several paintings spend a lot of time on boats. This is a problem, as wet environments aren't good for paintings. I've read that this is a serious problem on yachts - rich owners ruin priceless works of art by putting them on boats that sink, spring leaks or catch fire.

In conclusion, Gregory MacDonald is the famous third MacDonald on the mystery shelf. He comes behind Ross MacDonald and John D.