The problem with Veronica Mars (2014) is in the title. No, it’s not the wrong title, but the right title, because this movie is all about Mars, her troubled ties to her old high school in Neptune, California, and not really anything else. And that’s fairly dull.
Mars’ one time friend and classmate Logan Echolls finds himself suspected of murder by the lazy, corrupt cops of Neptune when he is found next to the electrocuted body of a woman with whom he was associated, another high school classmate of his and Mars’, now known as Ruby Jetson. Ruby was a well-known singer and celebrity, so this is a high profile murder case.
At his request, Mars, who has graduated from law school and is looking for a high-powered job to cover the costs, flies home to help investigate it. She had assisted her father for years as a private eye, and so she brings a certain level of expertise to his case. She checks out Logan and begins her investigation, runs into problems, expresses her continued hostility towards old classmates, and notes how just about no one in her class has really grown up. Eventually, it comes out that, sometime after graduation, a group of her classmates, including Ruby, had a party on a boat during which one of them died. In order to avoid the questions and shadow that such an incident were to cause, they dumped the body into the ocean.
And now someone is blackmailing them.
Well, someone else is killed, another seriously injured and then framed for attempted murder, and her own father is seriously hurt – but we never learn who’s responsible for that particular incident, and in fact that’s more or less dropped like a hot potato.
The problem? There’s little to learn from the murders. It’s all about Mars and her relationship with her sordid little town, and how she can’t help but return there. Sure, it’s not unusual to focus on the good guys in dramas like this, but the best focus on the bad guys and how they hold some attraction for the good guys. It becomes a moral struggle.
Mars’ struggle? Whether she’ll take that high-powered job at a big time law firm, or if she’ll stay in Neptune and split the private eye business with her Dad.
And that’s dull. There’s no denying this is well acted, and there are some sharp, fun exchanges, but there was little chance to predict who dunnit, as the perpetrator appears conveniently out of nowhere. Again, it’s all about Mars.
So, too bad. Meh.
