Confess, Fletch marks beloved journalist Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher’s third on-screen appearance and the first in nearly 40 years since Chevy Chase filled him to the peak of his cinematic popularity.
Meanwhile, there have been several attempts to resurrect the character after the outdated sequel. Fletch lives in 1989. Ryan Reynolds, Ben Affleck, and Joshua Jackson were all mentioned to fill the lead role, but none of these incarnations officially gained momentum. Finally, director Kevin Smith attempted to reinvigorate the franchise with Alvin and the Chipmunks’ Jason Lee in the early 2000s, but that too went off the rails before filming.
Confess introduces us to the manifestation of Jon Hamm’s character, and, quite frankly, it’s possibly one of the best big-screen roles for actors, allowing him to slip on his cool confidence and flex his ongoing comedic chops. of road.
Coming closer to author Greg Mcdonald’s vision of the character, director Greg Mottola and co-writer Zev Borow move away from the goofy Chase characters that marked his two films and ultimately swallowed Lives (which was not based on a Mcdonald novel). Instead, they focused more on weaving together the various subplots that entangle our titular hero.
“Fletch travels to Boston to investigate, only to wake up to a dead woman in his Airbnb, and he becomes the main suspect…”
We now find Fletch in early retirement from journalism and in Rome flirting with a woman named Angela (Lorenza Izzo), whose wealthy father is kidnapped. Angela becomes embroiled in a tussle with her stepmother, known as the Countess (Marcia Gay Harden), during the ordeal, as there is a financially significant painting that is also part of the mystery.
Fletch travels to Boston to investigate, only to wake up to a dead woman in his AirBnB, and he becomes the prime suspect in her murder. Through, Confess is peppered with colorful potential culprits and gives Fletch two uptight officers (Roy Wood Jr. and Ayden Mayeri) as targets for his frequent verbal barbs.
It’s certainly nowhere near as complex as Rian Johnson’s Knives out, nor does he try to be. Instead, Matolla and company ride at a leisurely pace to match our leader’s cavalier attitude. Matolla instead lets us marinate in situations for Fletch to sneak into (and out of) a number of escalating sticky situations.
Confess works because Hamm decides to strip down the whole “Chevy-ness” of the character and is actually much closer to the source material than the SNL alum’s take. As a result, Fletch looks more like an actual character than a series of skits that allow him to don a series of goofy outfits and mugs for the camera.
It’s nowhere near as quotable as a result. There’s no “Claud Henry Smoot,” “Harvey Poon,” Arnold Babar, or “Dr. Rosenpenis” to be found here, and Fletch zingers won’t make a Youtube highlight reel. But for those who have read any of McDonald’s adventures with the reporter (there are nine of them, not counting the “Son of Fletch” novels), Confess, Fletch feels much more authentic and gives Hamm one of the biggest sandboxes yet for his talent. And here is the hope for the next chapters.
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