Greg Mottola's Confess, Fletch

A new Fletch movie has finally been made, and Cody has seen it.

In 1974, author Gregory Mcdonald introduced the world to an irreverent, mystery-solving journalist named Fletch in a novel that was appropriately titled Fletch. That story was given a highly entertaining cinematic adaptation with the 1985 film Fletch, starring Chevy Chase in the title role. Then, even though Mcdonald had written eight other Fletch books that could have been given adaptations, the studio and filmmakers decided to go with an original story for the ‘89 sequel Fletch Lives. That didn’t go over as well. A third Fletch movie then spent decades languishing in development hell. Kevin Smith was attached a couple different times, and for a while in the early 2000s wanted to make a film based on the prequel novel Fletch Won, with Jason Lee as a younger Fletch and Chase potentially appearing in bookend segments. But the project was set up at a studio with an infamous co-founder who wouldn’t let Smith cast Lee in the film. Other actors were considered: Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Dave Chappelle, Zach Braff. Many of them were too intimidated by the idea of following in Chase's footsteps to take the role. Smith eventually let the project go, and it was handed over to the likes of Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence and Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink. Joshua Jackson was going to star in Pink’s version of Fletch Won. Then that fell apart too. Jason Sudeikis wanted to be Fletch. That didn't happen. But now, finally, another Fletch movie has been made. An adaptation of the second Fletch book Mcdonald wrote: Confess, Fletch. And the actor who has taken on the role of Fletch so many years after Chase so perfectly brought him to life is Jon Hamm.

I have watched Confess, Fletch a couple times now, and I’ll get this out of the way right up front: Jon Hamm is no Chevy Chase. The energy and charisma Chase brought to Fletch in the ‘80s is not on display in Hamm’s version of the character. Hamm isn’t terrible in the role and he does have some amusing moments, but there’s something awkward about the way he delivers a lot of the wittier lines. It just didn’t quite work for me. I could see he was trying, but his Fletch wasn’t as charming or funny as I was hoping he would be. At 51, he’s also substantially older than the character was in the book.

Confess, Fletch is further hindered by the fact that writer/director Greg Mottola (Superbad) and co-writer Zev Borow chose to adapt what I feel is one of the lesser Fletch novels. It’s easy to understand why Smith, Lawrence, and Pink were all focused on Fletch Won: it would have made for a much more fun movie than Confess, Fletch turned out to be.

The story begins with Fletch, who has been hanging out in Europe, meeting with the De Grassi family in Rome. Since he has previously written an article about art theft that helped the authorities solve the case, he has now been hired by Count De Grassi (Robert Picardo) to find a batch of extremely valuable paintings that have been stolen from him. Soon after Fletch strikes up a relationship with the Count’s daughter Angela (Lorenza Izzo), the Count is abducted and held for ransom – and the ransom is a Picasso painting. One of the paintings that were stolen from the Count. Fletch follows a lead to Boston, where art dealer Ronald Horan (Kyle MacLachlan) has already sold a couple of the stolen paintings. And on his first night in the townhouse he’s renting in Boston, Fletch finds the corpse of a murdered woman in the living room.

So while Fletch searches for the paintings and tries to figure out what’s going on with Horan, he also has to deal with the fact that he’s the prime suspect in the murder case and has Inspector Morris Monroe (Roy Wood Jr.) and trainee Griz (Ayden Mayeri), my favorite character in the movie, watching and examining his every move. When they can see him, anyway. He’s very good at losing a tail. In the book, the detective on the murder case was Inspector Francis Xavier Flynn, a character who didn’t make it into this adaptation because Mcdonald also wrote a series of Flynn novels, so the rights to use that character are separate from the Fletch rights.

While navigating the two investigations, Fletch crosses paths with characters who actually tend to be livelier, more interesting, and more amusing than he is. The people he interacts with include Annie Mumolo as his spacey neighbor at the townhouse; John Behlmann as the drug-addicted, physically violent owner of the townhouse; Lucy Punch as the owner’s ex-wife; and Marcia Gay Harden as The Countess. Hamm’s Mad Men co-star John Slattery also shows up as a rather miserable version of Fletch’s old boss Frank Jaffe.

Confess, Fletch gets by on good will and comedic supporting characters for a while. It could have earned some more good will by bringing in Harold Faltermeyer, the composer behind the iconic score of the original Fletch. Instead, David Arnold – best known for his work on the James Bond franchise – was brought in to compose a score that replaces Faltermeyer’s synth sounds with jazz that got to be grating at times. 

The movie starts to sputter out in the second half, and by the last fifteen minutes or so it had worn out its welcome for me. I was ready for the end credits to start rolling. It’s not a bad movie, but it’s one that doesn’t reach the level of entertainment that a Fletch movie should. At least a new Fletch movie has finally broken out of development hell, made it through production, and gone out into the world. Now that the property has been revived, maybe we can get a better Fletch movie before another 33 years has gone by. And more actors might be open to playing the title role going forward, because Jon Hamm's Fletch is an easier act to follow than Chevy Chase's was.

Confess, Fletch is getting a theatrical, digital, and VOD release on September 16th.