A loving tribute…but not much else.
China Moon represents the directorial debut feature of John Bailey, one of the most solid cinematographers in the film industry. The skilled and accomplished lenser can count such titles as Ordinary People, American Gigolo, The Big Chill, The Pope of Greenwich Village, and The Accidental Tourist as highlights on his resume…and that’s just in the space of a single decade. It would be ridiculous to question Bailey’s knack for giving the right physical tone and texture to a film’s setting, elevating its storytelling techniques and placing its characters in a specific kind of world. Yet as China Moon shows, sometimes the most irrefutable of talent simply isn’t enough.
In 1991’s China Moon, Detective Kyle Bodine (Ed Harris) begins to fall for the attractive Rachel Munro (Madeleine Stowe), who is married to the wealthy and abusive Rupert (Charles Dance). When Rachel accidentally shoots Rupert in a moment of desperation, Kyle finds himself trying to clean up the evidence, an act made even harder thanks to the suspicions of his partner Lamar (Benecio Del Toro).
There’s no questioning that Bailey more than did his homework in crafting various elements of China Moon. The film fits perfectly into the world of neo-noir, the style of filmmaking prevalent in the ‘80s and ‘90s which sought to replicate the story and filmmaking techniques of film noir. The characters, from Kyle to Rachel to (especially) Rupert, are all textbook prototypes plucked from the genre’s heyday and, to their credit, all sound, look, and feel like they could have been played by the likes of Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Dan Duryea, respectively, had the film been made in the late ‘40s. The same can more than be said for everyone’s actions, which stay true to the kind of mentality and motivations characters of the genre are known for. Likewise, the film does right by its physical trappings. The movie’s rich Florida settings more than accentuate the movie’s motifs and attitudes, with the hot Florida steaminess present in virtually every scene. In a certain way, you can feel the Florida heat as being palpable enough to fuel the various crimes, cover-ups, and double crossing which make up the action throughout China Moon.
However, because the movie is so fiercely concerned with paying homage, it forgets to actually say or do anything to make itself stand out. Bailey is so careful to make sure China Moon adheres to the many iconic tropes of the genre that it ends up not bringing anything new to the table in the way other ventures such as Chinatown (no relation) and Body Heat so admirably did. Yes, everyone here is a prototype and everything they do is an expected turn in the plot. The problem is nothing and/or no one is anything more than that. The most casual of genre fans could take a nap during the bulk of China Moon and still be able to recall who killed who, why they did it, who isn’t who they say there are, and why the whole thing happened in the first place. Maybe therein lies the ultimate problem. While the characters in China Moon and their actions all have a reason to exist within the movie’s world, the movie itself as an entity in the real world fails to find one of its own. Even in the time of classic noir, an effort such as China Moon would have been considered to be capitalizing on a current movie trend and find itself immediately tacked onto the b-side of a double bill featuring a more worthwhile venture.
It’s natural that a film as flawed as China Moon would result in a string of performances which are just all over the place. While the two leads noticeably struggle to bring life to their frankly uninteresting characters, Dance at least knows he’s not making anything special and is instead just content to ham it up in a valiant effort to inject some fun into the movie. Unlike the rest of the cast, Del Toro is actually the film’s most exciting character. The way he shows Lamar’s hunger at catching Rupert’s killer gives the film some spark and is a prime example of the kind of exciting character work the actor would become famous for.
At the risk of making China Moon sound like nothing but a total waste of time for neo-noir fans, it should be pointed out that there are some elements of the film which do work. Besides nailing the required setting for such a story, there is some genuine tension in the scenes where Kyle and Rachel are trying to desperately fool the relentlessly determined Lamar. In fact, when Bailey allows the cat-and-mouse aspects to play out, China Moon becomes the kind of movie everyone watching wishes it truly was. Beyond this, the way the film maintains a self-contained nature works to its benefit as it never lets itself dig deeper than it should. Although, maybe a tad bit deeper wouldn’t have hurt.
China Moon is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber.
