It is painful to have to admit this, but even Wim Wenders can make a bad movie. I saw this years ago and was terribly disappointed. I just had another look, fooling myself into thinking it must have matured in the can and it would be really good, and that I just remembered it wrong. But alas, it was even worse than I remembered. Frederic Forrest is superb and was perfectly chosen to play the main character, Dash Hammett the detective writer ('The Maltese falcon', 'The Glass Key' and the 'Thin Man' films). Forrest worked again with Wenders 15 years later in another film and he played Hammett a second time in 'Citizen Cohn' (1992). He is a good solid actor and always delivers. The other highlight of this film in terms of acting is the amazing Lydia Lei, who plays a Chinese siren even though she is Japanese. She has that something extra. She will make the hair rise on the back of your neck, and maybe more besides. But the film is a super-flop. Wenders obviously loves old noir movies and thought 'wouldn't it be nice if'. But just as 'man cannot live by bread alone', so a film director 'cannot live by homage alone'. The concept, the story, the script, are all terrible. And the interior lighting is even worse, far too harsh, and the attempts at expressionism with streaked shadows and so forth is a total failure. Above all, everything is too contrived and the characters apart from Hammett himself are pastiche people, which was doubtless intentional in a jocular homage sort of way, but Germans should never try humour, as it is not their forte, and Wenders is best when he is being earnest and serious, or portraying personal angst or hanging out with musicians. Even Wenders's flair for music wobbles here, with some dubious song choices. This was just an 'off day' for Wenders which lasts for 97 minutes, and if you make it that far you pass the endurance test.
Review of Hammett
