A long time ago, we used to have a network named UPN- if you haven't heard of them lately at all, that's because they merged with the WB to become the CW. And anyway, about a decade ago now, the UPN premiered this quirky television show centered around a teenaged private eye. Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell's breakout role) could have been described as 'Nancy Drew' for the New Millennium, but she was way too cynical and way too jaded for that- sixteen going on fifty. The show was intelligent, watchable and thanks to the easy, believable chemistry between Veronica and her Dad Keith (Enrico Colantoni) had one of the best father-daughter relationships ever portrayed on television.
And like all intelligent, watchable television shows, it lasted for three seasons and was then promptly cancelled.
But then a funny thing happened: the show gained a vocal cult following and both Kristen Bell and the show's creator, Rob Thomas expressed interest in making a movie. And then another funny thing happened: they decided to promote their potential movie via Kickstarter and ended up raising more than $2 million dollars in the space of about ten hours or so. (They added a further $3 million over the course of the rest of their one month Kickstarter period.) That convinced Warner Brothers that there was enough interest out there to warrant making a movie, so a little more than a year later, here we are with Veronica Mars: The Movie.
Picking up ten years after the end of the television show, we find Veronica (Kristen Bell) on the verge of breaking free from her old life in Neptune once and for all. She's got a successful boyfriend, Piz (Chris Lowell) (who works with Ira Glass at This American Life, I guess) and she's on the verge of landing a job at a prestigious New York law firm, headed up by Jamie Lee Curtis. But just as everything seems to be coming up roses for Veronica, she gets a call from her old boyfriend, Logan Ecchols (Jason Dohring).
Logan has been implicated in the death of his pop star girlfriend, Bonnie Deville, who used to go by the name Carrie Bishop and attend high school with both Veronica and Logan. Quickly enough, despite her determination to get out and stay out Veronica finds herself back in the private eye business and just in time for her ten year high school reunion with friends Wallace (Percy Daggs III) and Mac (Tina Majorino)- where she realizes that the more things change, the more they stay the same and that the key to finding out if Logan is innocent or not is to be found smack dab in the middle of her former high school classmates.
As she reconnects with old friends, including a reformed ex-biker, now straight up family man Eli Navarro (Francis Capra) the allure of her old life and her connection with her ex-boyfriend threatens to rekindle their old flame together, Veronica finds herself drawn back to Neptune as her quest to clear Logan's name threatens to reveal secrets that some people would prefer to stay buried.
Fans of the television show are going to absolutely love this movie. It's nice to see Veronica, again of course, but going back to Neptune and reconnecting with all of her old high school buddies? It's like the ten year high school reunion you actually want to go to! Meeting these characters again is a lot of fun- Veronica's surprise at finding out former bad boy biker Weevil is now a settled, stable family man is genuine enough to make fans of the show stand up and cheer. Every character, major or minor that fans of the show loved seems to make an appearance.
But, beyond that- the movie is peppered with celebrity cameos that actually work really well and don't seem all that jarring and out of place. Justin Long, Harvey Levin and Ira Glass all show up- inevitably, because James Franco has to be in everything these days, he shows up as well. And Mr. Kristen Bell himself, Dax Shepherd shows up for a brief, funny cameo that is over far too quickly.
Don't be afraid, though: if you have no idea what 'Veronica Mars' is going into this movie, you won't be left out in the cold. There's a brief prologue at the start of the film that does an effective job of providing context as to who Veronica is and what her story is- and after that, you can just sit back, relax and let yourself enjoy an engaging, intelligent, thriller of a movie that will leave you wanting more- or, at the very least, leave you wanting to get your hands on the television show so you can find out what you've been missing all these years.
Overall, this movie is incredibly good. It manages to balance itself between being a love letter to fans of the television show while introducing these characters to new and (hopefully) eager audiences, which is a feat in and of itself. The actors haven't missed a beat and settle back into their roles with gusto and enthusiasm and the writing remains intelligent, the dialogue snappy and the plot moves right along. It's good to have Veronica Mars back. You can only hope enough people out there agree with that sentiment to warrant a sequel. My Grade: A+
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