Photo courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Confessions first: I have never seen a single episode of the original Veronica Mars series. But I love Kristen Bell, and the premise seemed like something I would have watched had I known about it when it was on – plus I loved the idea of a Kickstarter campaign for a movie for a series that was canceled too soon (a la Firefly and Serenity), so I thought I might check it out.
It was actually a game time decision. I wanted to go to the movies, and I didn’t want to see anything else that was playing – even though most of the Oscar Best Picture films are still playing in my area – and I said, Why not? I’ll see Veronica Mars.
AWESOME decision. I loved it, and didn’t feel confused or out of the loop at all even though I hadn’t seen the series! I don’t know the specifics on some of the relationships and history, but I think the film clued me in well enough. If I misrepresent any of those details, or if I inferred or imply anything incorrectly here, I apologize.
The basic overview is that Veronica is now a big-time soon-to-be lawyer in New York, engaged (or damn near – I was fuzzy on that bit) to Piz (Chris Lowell, Enlisted, Private Practice), when she sees a news report about a murder back in her hometown, and shortly after, gets a call from Logan, the prime suspect. While she doesn’t want to get dragged back into that world again, she can’t quite say no to one last job, especially one involving Logan.
So, she flies back west, has an Officer and a Gentleman moment with Logan in full dress whites at the airport, and surprises her dad at his PI office. I think it surprised her how easily she fell right back into the old routine, answering the phones at her dad’s office, busting chops with her old friends, and rekindling that sexual tension between her and Logan. I can see why so many people loved the series – it’s snarky, funny, irreverent, and Veronica is a real badass, too cool for school. I don’t think any of that was lost in transferring the story from television to film.
The story focuses on Veronica investigating the death of Logan’s ex-girlfriend, a girl they used to go to high school with, and how she keeps extending her trip, even at risk of hurting her new job offer, in order to find the truth. I won’t give anything away, but I will mention a few of the costars on the roster who I found particularly fun: Krysten Ritter (aka the B—- in Don’t Trust the B—- in Apt. 23) plays Gia, another of Veronica’s old classmates and friends with the deceased; Jerry O’Connell as the new sheriff, a real asshole who gives dirty cops a bad name; Jamie Lee Curtis makes an appearance at the beginning as one of the interviewers Veronica meets with for a job at a law firm; Mr. Kristen Bell, aka Dax Shepherd (Parenthood) also makes a cameo, which is totally gratuitous but too much fun not to include.
Also, since I didn’t the series, there were a few characters who were familiar to existing Mars fans, but were new to me and extremely fun to watch in this context: Max Greenfield (Schmidt on New Girl) appears briefly as one of Veronica’s contacts/old flames; Tina Majorino was fun to see again as well even though she was a regular from the series, I wanted to mention her because I think we’ve all missed her from Grey’s. Also, Ryan Hansen returns as Dick, also an original from the series, but I recognized him as Andy, Caroline’s former sweetheart of a candyman boyfriend on 2 Broke Girls. He’s effing hilarious in this film.
Overall, for being the first “crowd-funded” film we’ve seen since it occurred to Hollywood people to do this, I thought it was pretty great. It was really entertaining, it even had a couple of good twists toward the end, and like I said, I think that some of the stuff people loved about the series were transferred over very well.
That said, I think the only things I can nitpick at are it probably could have used a little more editing, and the story, while familiar in theme, probably could have gotten a little deeper. There were a few scenes that ran a little long, even though the film as a whole only runs 107 minutes. Also, the murder story – while it definitely would have worked in an hour episode, or even a two-parter episode on television – felt a little stale (as in, done to death in crime TV dramas) once the truth started coming together at the end.
While the film did a great job reviving the characters and reengaging them in new lives years after the series left off, the murder story, which acts as more of a catalyst than a plot for most of the film, really could have gone emotionally deeper. As it was, even though Logan was the prime suspect and even though it was Veronica’s first case in years, in the end, it felt like “just another case”.
The ending was great, though. Very fitting. Dare I say, even open to a sequel if it earns enough, the actors are willing, and the studios are willing bankroll a sequel instead of forcing it to be crowdfunded. I doubt that it will happen, but you never know in Hollywood – never say never!
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