Sketch Artist (1992)

 

I used to enjoy this kind of sleazy urban detective story in the 90s when I finally had access to cable. Sketch Artist (1992) is a film I remember seeing late on Cinemax or HBO when at a hotel on vacation. This is exactly that kind of movie. I watched it earlier this evening but I could actually see "Sketch Artist" as a random selection when you are bored and sort of in the mood for something that isn't glossy or mainstream, channel surfing while encumbered by insomnia at 1AM. I do think that new viewers might want to temper expectations; especially, if you see the film cover and it highlights Drew Barrymore, even though she's barely in the movie maybe fifteen or so minutes. She's a character that serves the plot as a tragic victim of circumstances. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time...a messenger stumbling on the scene of a crime, seeing the killer first hand unknowingly. An active participant in the fashion world, this muscled hunk fucks a sexy escort to an orchestral score. The hunk doses off while she gets her clothes back on, unexpectedly staring down a silencer as a gun puts two in him. His death is tied to the likes of Sean Young and Tcheky Karyo, the former married to police sketch artist, Jeff Fahey, the latter a bigwig in high fashion (Young works for Karyo). So Barrymore comes in to give Fahey a sketch of the woman she saw leave the victim's house on the night of the murder...that woman's face is identical to Young. So Fahey puts his job and even life on the line to hopefully prove his wife isn't the killer. This is the kind of film that will let him down.

Sometimes when I watch these films I'm reacquainted with actors I sadly had forgotten about. Frank McRae was a fixture in the 80s, but I remember him best from a lot of cop and tough guy movies. In this film he's a reluctant source of information within the police force, assigned detective on the case Fahey sketched Young on. Fahey conceals Young's identity from his superiors; particularly, James Tolkan (you see him in everything in the 80s, but he's a character actor that often orders people around and demands results), is frustrated with Fahey for getting too involved in the case. Because Barrymore is killed, and Fahey was at her apartment the night she was murdered, he becomes a suspect. So McRae has to trust Fahey who makes it a mission to expose the killer or killers behind the death of two people tied to Karyo. Belle Avery is the wife of the first victim, later photographed by Fahey having sex with Karyo. Charlotte Lewis ("Embrace of the Vampire" (1995)) is an escort that comes on Fahey's radar because she was sexually involved with the first victim. Stacy Haiduk in an early role is another suspect that Fahey comes across within Karyo's world. So lots of beautiful women keep emerging in the film.

This is essentially an urban "neo noir", with the expected round of suspects either involved in the world of fashion or with those in the world of fashion. Fahey's marriage to Young is strained to say the least. I have no idea why they are married at all, quite frankly. Besides one major sex scene between them, they couldn't be more distant and out of synch. Anyone could see they are going different places in life. Fahey has the unshaved face, untamed mane, ongoing smokes popping in and out of his mouth (though a bum zippo fails ever to strike a flame), and lack of a ride (he often bums from McRae, even taking a convertible from an escort he visited to question!) while Young is attached to a hip fashion job with lots of wealth and privilege, dressed to the nines and very attentive to looking the part. They are just at two completely different places in life. And yet Fahey will go to the ends of the earth to help out his wife, even as it seems quite clear she's about to move on from him. I think that might be a serious critique against Fahey's character in "Sketch Artist". He seems to immerse himself further and further in too deep and he's fortunate enough to have a pal in McRae who goes against his better judgment to help him. I think those who are familiar or are fans of noir plots and films will more or less expect Fahey to dig himself out of his near burial, but as much as he wants to prove his wife isn't involved, the more he realizes she very well could be a killer. 

I wish Barrymore was in this more. I LOVE that period when she went a bit wild and came of age, although I regret her downward spiral. But she rehabbed and found her way out. That is to be applauded. In this film, Barrymore isn't a vixen or anything, but she was very much on her way to being a sexpot. I want to say this was right before "Doppelganger" and "Guncrazy" and in the same year as "Poison Ivy". Sadly, Barrymore's part in "Sketch Artist" is very much a witness who gives Fahey the face of Young, more than a bit annoyed that he keeps bothering her for more details. When someone annoys her, she gives a return smart ass remark, which always appealed to me. But the role isn't any great shakes. And I was admittedly bummed.

There is some sex, a bit of flesh, some fake attempted blackmail, adultery, betrayal, guns aimed, exposition by killers doled out, and a score from Ishram (a sample below) that seems to fit the mood of a sketch artist gradually inserting himself into various parts of LA, where smog and sun are bedfellows, the haves and havenots intersect, as he encounters a sundry of morally dubious types he needs to check off the suspect list. On the score, I found that it seemed to really mimic the personality of Fahey and his journey...and that is what can often be effective to me as a viewer. 2.5/5

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