GOTHAM

US, 1987, 97 minutes, Colour.
Tommy Lee Jones, Virginia Madsen, Frederic Forrest.
Directed by Lloyd Fonvielle.

Gotham is an oddball movie, the combination of updated private eye film noir and ghost story. It has contemporary New York settings, Tommy Lee Jones as a private eye, Virginia Madsen as a ghost. The plot is not very easy to follow - one presumes that the detective exorcises the ghost who continues to haunt her husband. Frederic Forrest has a brief moment as a Russian Orthodox priest with some theories on ghosts.

1. Interesting thriller, private eye story, ghost story?

2. New York City and its atmosphere? Musical score? 'Where or when'?

3. The plausibility of the plot, Implausibility’s, comprehensibility?

4. Charlie at the bar, the tradition of the bartender listening, the framework for the story, Charlie telling the story about Eddie and Rachel?

5. Charlie and his past, his ghost, hiding in the church porch, going to see the private eye, hiring Eddie, money no object, the finding of the ghost, the question of the jewels, wanting a record, the jewels as paste, the final meeting? Telling his story in the bar and Rachel's coming?

6. Eddie as the private eye, type, listening, taking the money, later conscience? Seeing Rachel, talking to her, following up, her apology, the infatuation, the contact, falling in love, sexual liaison, her disappearance? The story, following up the leads, research? Seeing her dead? The bath, the refrigerator? On the ferry? The appointment for the jewels? The question of the jewels and the past? His anguish, talking to the Orthodox priest? Ghosts and truth and lies? Tim and his help, the girlfriend? His options? The end, their going off together, the postcards?

7. Rachel and her beauty, haunting Charlie, her being a vamp towards Eddie, the apology, the seduction, her really being a ghost, 'where or when'? Falling in love, the reappearances, as dead, the ferry, falling into the water, wanting her jewels, not getting them, the reaction of Eddie and his rejection? Her reappearance and look at the camera at the end?

8. Tim and his friendship, the research, the girlfriend and their help? The final holiday?

9. Father George, his explanation of ghosts?

10. Interesting plot, enjoyable? A puzzle? Characters? Stretching plausibility’s?