L.A. Confidential

(Warner)

Curtis Hanson's adaptation of James Ellroy's noir preserves the novel's 1950s Hollywood atmosphere, tough dialogue, and lurid detail while untangling, compressing, and realigning the implausible overplotting. In this LAPD drama, Guy Pearce is brown-nosing Sergeant Ed Exley, Russell Crowe is the beefy strong-arm Sergeant Bud White, and Kevin Spacey is slick Sergeant Jack Vincennes. Although the characters' moral conversions are a bit glib, the dense narrative soars, and the performances convince. With Danny DeVito as a scandal-sheet editor and Kim Basinger in her Oscar-winning role as a call girl.