If there’s one good thing to be said of Werner Herzog, it’s that his films at least have some interesting elements to them. However, in his case, the elements never tend to add up to very much, or at least not enough to sustain an entire film. “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans,” aside from going for longest title of the year, is another such entry in his filmography.
Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) is one of the most corrupt cops on the force in New Orleans. We get inklings early on that he’s not all there in a scene that has him more concerned about his expensive underwear than saving a man’s life who’s about to drown. Though he does eventually rescue the man, he ends up causing himself back pain that will be with him the rest of his life. A doctor prescribes Vicodin, which quickly leads him to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin.
Meanwhile, he is brought onto a case where five people have been murdered, supposedly over drugs. He must track down who was involved, but the only person who can identify the murderer is very scared. During his investigation, Terence visits his prostitute-girlfriend, Frankie Donnenfeld (Eva Mendes), whom he gives drugs to and sometimes scores from. As if drugs weren’t a bad enough problem for Terence, he is also a compulsive gambler, making several bets through his bookie, Ned Schoenholtz (Brad Dourif). All of this stands in the way of him getting work done on the case.
One of those “interesting elements” from this film is Nicolas Cage’s bizarre portrayal of Terence McDonagh. Those familiar with Cage’s previous work know he’s done some really strange performances before (see his Oscar-winning role in “Leaving Las Vegas”), but he seems even more off the hook here. There are scenes where he seems like he’s gone completely out of his mind.
There’s an interesting section where he even begins to show an accent which hadn’t been there in previous scenes, and which disappears in the last section of the film. It’s possible that this was just a mistake, or it could have just been part of his performance. Who knows what cocaine, heroin, and 90 minutes of sleep over three days will do to someone? We certainly get to see the results of that in a much later scene where Terence is trying to find out where his witness has gone off to.
Something else to note about this film is that it’s the first film of his (at least that I can recall) where Herzog did not have a hand in the screenplay, yet it’s interesting that it still comes off sounding exactly like a Herzog film. As seen in his previous films (“Aguirre: The Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo,” and “Rescue Dawn,” to name a few), much of his films are visually striking. Here, we are shown a portrait of New Orleans not long after Hurricane Katrina, where buildings are still rundown and few people are about.
If you’re familiar with Herzog’s work, you also know that he is not much on narrative, and that’s where the problems begin with “Bad Lieutenant.” He sets up an interesting film about trying to find whoever murdered this family, but decides to take long breaks from that in order to give time for Terence to visit his girlfriend and snort cocaine.
Far too many scenes involve Terence trying to get his next score whether he gets it from the property room at the police station, from his girlfriend, or taking it right off of people that he should be arresting for possession. At this point, we know he has a problem with drugs, but for some reason it’s as if Herzog doesn’t think we understand, so he fills the film with several unnecessary scenes of Terence acquiring drugs.
As far as Herzog’s films go, this one is almost enjoyable. Nicolas Cage is fun to watch as he tries to go about his work with all of the problems he has to face, but the film just has too many loose pieces that don’t really fit into the puzzle as a whole (why bother throwing Terence’s parents into the mix at all?). The ending is rather silly and wraps up way too easily (their CSI team must be really bad at their job). Then there are the iguanas. Apparently when pink elephants are no longer enough, there is another stage of hallucination; the stage that Herzog operates on.
2.5/4 stars.
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