Fletch

Based on the mystery novels by Gregory McDonald, Chevy Chase plays Fletch—Irwin M. Fletcher—an investigative reporter. Although the books I believe are thrillers for the most part, the film takes advantage of Chase's comic chops and casts the character in a more comedic light.


In this story Fletch is undercover on the beach, trying to find the people pushing drugs to junkies. He observes Fat Sam (George Wendt) who seemingly never moves from his chair but always has drugs to sell. Fletch wants to catch the big fish, but his editor wants something to print now. Later he finds that the police chief (Joe Don Baker) may have something to do with the trafficking.

While on the beach, Fletch is approached by mysterious millionaire Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson), who asks Fletch to kill him: he has a terminal illness and wants to leave his wife (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson) the money from the insurance. Fletch investigates this too and likes the wife, and ends up falling for her.

This is a basic mystery punctuated by Chase’s non sequiters and disguises as Fletch tries to get info about Stanwyk and the drugs, breaking a bigger story than he anticipated. You forget at times he is a reporter and not a detective.  Geena Davis plays a research assistant.

The story has a lot of little mysteries that are all tied up at the end, and of course all connected to one another. Wheeler-Nicholson was good as the wife, and she wasn’t just cast to be a pretty face. Chase is actually not that bad of a straight actor, and I found his antics not really fitting into the story. It seemed when he was in a disguise, everyone else turned dumb—not recognizing him, not realizing they were fooled, no matter how silly his persona or requests. They were more fitting to a comedy story and not a mystery, and this movie wanted to be both.

There were other actors you would recognize, M. Emmet Walsh, George Wyner, William Sanderson, Alison LaPlaca, and the couple who played Stanwyk’s parents were good as innocent country hicks, so that you could believe Stanwyk would want to escape his past and reinvent himself. The supporting cast were all good, including Larry Flash Jenkins, who played Gummy the junkie, he also added some comedy.

Fletch is not a bad movie, but I would have preferred a straight mystery, and it’s dated by an 80s synthesizer soundtrack.