Fletch
Genre: Dark Comedy/Mystery
Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Chad Taylor
Based on the novel by Gregory McDonald
Cast: Glen Powell, Christina Hendricks, Tracy Letts, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Kaia Gerber, Shea Whigham, Hunter Schafer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Joe Lo Truglio, Toby Huss, Zoey Deutch, Danny DeVito
Plot: Corpus Christi, Texas, mid-1970s
“Let me guess: Star quarterback at your west Texas high school. Had some scholarship offers but chose to stay home to work in the family business. Didn’t work out so you moved out to the coast to try something different. Fell in with the wrong crowd and now you’re bumming around with the druggies and dropouts - the kids you once despised in school.” Alan Stanwyck (Patrick Schwarzenegger) says with confidence.
The man (Glen Powell) sitting across from him is impressed at being sized up so efficiently. His bronze skin, sun-faded Houston Oilers jersey, and lack of shoes tell a certain story, as does the fact that Alan has picked up this man directly from that dirty beach—and he just gladly accepts the joint that Alan offered him. But this imagined backstory has a few flaws: the man is actually originally from California and he always lacked the coordination to throw a football.
“I want you to kill me.”
The man violently coughs out a plume of smoke, continuing for an uncomfortably long couple of seconds. Alan admits that this sound ridiculous but he has found the perfect person for the job: an aimless drifter who was once the star quar…ah, you get the drift. Alan says that he has recently been diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer and is looking to bypass any suffering. “Why don’t you just…kill yourself?,” the man immediately knows how bad that sounds after he asks it. Alan says that would negate his life insurance policy and be extra ruinous to his wife and two daughters. “And your murder, wouldn’t?,” the man murmurs.
Here is the offer: seven days from now, a window will be left slightly open in his kitchen (a mistake his maid often makes). A gun will be left in the master bedroom safe. Alan will be reading in his den. It will look like a robbery gone wrong. Three million dollars will also wait for him in the safe and a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires that leaves that night. Lie low a few years, maybe come back when the coast is clear or maybe start a new life there. Must be better than bumming it up with hippies on the beach. After a moment to think, the man nods his head and shakes Alan’s hand. “It’s a deal. What’s your name anyway?,” Stanwyck asks.
"I'm Fletcher," the man says. A:"Is that your first or last name?" F: "I.M. Fletcher" A: "Ah, gotcha. What's the I.M. stand for? You know, for the plane ticket." F: sighs internally. "Irwin Maurice, but I don't like to talk about it." A: "Fletcher it is."
"Fletch will do."
Fletch returns to the beach where Stanwyck found him. Every bum on the beach greets him with an oddly-comforting spaced-out nod. He eventually makes his way to Bobbi (Hunter Schafer), a lost twentysomething who he has struck up a protective bond with. She asks who that man was and if he knew him. Fletch says he doesn’t but that the man is offering him work. She asks if this means he won’t be around as much. He nods and she gives him a long hug.
After leaving the beach, Fletch goes home, cleans up, and heads to his real job as an investigative reporter at the Star Tribune. Fletch is a man constantly standing in the way of his own success in life, ass-bitten by his own smartassery. He’s charming, chameleonic, and always a step ahead but has a knack for burning every bridge he’s ever crossed. Everyone looks at Fletch and wonders what could’ve been. First and foremost among those is his editor Clara Snow (Christina Hendricks), who gives his bare feet a look of contempt. She was once his peer as fashion editor and leap-frogged him into this position. She asks for an update on his beach drug trade story but he eludes that to say he has something even bigger and proceeds to recount his encounter with Alan Stanwyck. She trusts his instincts and tells him to pursue it, but to also stay on top of the drug beat. She asks why he gave Stanwyck his real name and Fletch shrugs, saying he didn’t seem like the researching type.
They are interrupted by Frank Jaffe (Tracy Letts), head of the paper. He says he’s been looking for Fletch. A lawyer has been snooping around the office looking for him. Something about unpaid alimony. “Which wife this time?,” Fletch asks. Frank shrugs and asks why he doesn’t just pay. “They both wanted free of me. They’re free,” he says. “The court says you’re not free of them,” Clara notes. Fletch notices a look between Clara and Frank and says he doesn’t like this. Whatever they have going on in their private lives-Clara cuts him off and says nothing is going on. Frank agrees and heads to his office, where Fletch spots Chief of Police Ray Lawrence (Shea Whigham) waiting. Fletch asks about that and Clara says their wives are friends and they vacation together. Fletch gives another joking look after the mention of Frank’s wife, prompting Clara to shoo him off.
At his desk, Fletch calls the office of Alan Stanwyck’s general practitioner. He introduces himself as Bill Lamey, an insurance agent who is running an annual check on “very large policies” (which in this case is Alan Stanwyck’s life insurance). While the doctor is understandably cagey about Stanwyck’s medical record, there is no indication of any life-threatening illness for Stanwyck. Odd.
He asks financial editor Dan Wertz what he knows about Stanwyck Here’s the bare bones: He is a highly touted executive at Collins Aviation, a company founded by Jon Collins 30 years ago to specialize in airplane parts and that has grown into a very successful venture. Stanwyck joined the company out of the Air Force and worked his way up in the company but his biggest asset was marrying the boss’s daughter, Joan. That’s about as much as Dan knows. Fletch stares intently at Dan’s classy outfit and asks what size pants he wears.
The next morning, Fletch arrives classily-dressed to the Buena Vista Country Club. He parks his beat-up Trans-Am a few blocks away and sneaks in through the kitchen, through to the locker room, and finally the country club lounge. He approaches a beautiful tall brunette (Kaia Gerber) in a tennis outfit, sitting alone with a half-drunken martini. “Joan Stanwyck?,” he asks excitedly. She is confused. “Ron Utrelamensky!,” he exclaims. Still confused. He says he was at her wedding, an old Air Force buddy of Alan’s. He lives in Montana but is here on a business trip and what are the odds of this? A look of realization comes over her face and she says it’s nice to see him again. A waiter comes by and asks if he is a member at this club. He says he’s a guest of the Underwoods (a name he saw on one of the lockers). The waiter says the Underwoods aren’t here at the moment and Fletch says he’s meeting them. He orders a screwdriver and puts it on their tab.
Joan and “Ron” catch up about what Alan is up to these days. She says he’s thriving at the moment, close to landing a deal with NASA for Collins Aviation to help with spaceship parts and enjoying life with their daughters. She says she must have told him this at the wedding but he has a really nice bone structure. It reminds him of her husband’s. She warmly smiles. Fletch likes this. He asks how Alan’s parents are doing and she says she isn’t sure, he doesn’t talk much about them. But he flies back home to Pennsylvania often to see them. He says that’s great to hear before checking his watch and says he must be getting stood up. She asks how he knows the Underwoods and he just simply says it’s complicated.
Fletch returns to the beach, where he joins Bobbi and a couple of their pals. They mention how they haven’t seen Fat Sam in a hot minute. Fletch has surmised that Fat Sam is the one supplying the beach’s rampant drug trade, which has led to multiple overdose deaths. Fletch has picked up on a recurring trend: any time there is a crackdown on the beach, Bobbi is the only one arrested and no one else. He suspects this has something to do with Fat Sam but has yet to come in contact with him. In private, he tries to get to know Bobbi’s backstory a bit more but she remains enigmatic.
When he arrives at the office, he cracks a smile upon seeing a stranger (Joe Lo Truglio) reading an article of his in yesterday’s paper. The man then lowers the paper and asks if he is I.M. Fletcher. Fletch’s shoulders sag in defeat. The man introduces himself as a lawyer representing Linda Greene, formerly Fletcher, for months worth of unpaid alimony. Fletch tries to bargain with the man, saying that working at the paper doesn’t earn much. The lawyer says that isn’t his problem. Fletch has until this Friday to pay up or he will be summoned to court.
Fletch dials 411 in seeking the number of Marvin Stanwyck (Toby Huss v.o.), Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Once connected, Fletch tells Marvin he’s an insurance agent but begins fielding more personal, rapport-building questions before Marvin will speak. They start bonding over their shared military service. Fletch mentions that he was awarded a Bronze Star, just hasn’t picked it up yet. They begin to get into why he’s calling: the insurance company is concerned about Alan’s frequent piloted private flights to Pennsylvania. This is news to Marvin, who says he hasn’t seen his son since he went off for college; only monthly phone calls. Fletch raises an eyebrow. He tries to fish around about if Marvin knows anything about Alan’s illness but Alan is under the impression that his son is as healthy as can be. So healthy that he should be starting in the NFL right about now, he insists. Fletch eventually thanks Marvin for the time and Marvin tells him he should pick up that Bronze Star. Fletch says he will.
On the beach job, Bobbi finally takes Fletch with her to meet Fat Sam (Michael Stuhlbarg). He is not at all what Fletch was expecting. He’s a mellowed-out former music teacher, who only talks in idioms and always keeps direct eye contact. Not all that fat. Fletch finds this unsettling. Fletch reports this all back to Clara and they wonder how this man got to the point of becoming a drug kingpin. She admits that it seems like it could be a juicy headline: “Band Teacher Hits a Bad Note.” Fletch approves. He says there’s one more thing he wants to look into: why Bobbi is seemingly the only one arrested during the police searches. Are the police targeting her in some way? Clara says that’s good but he should have the full story to her in a couple of days. She reluctantly asks about his little Stanwyck case and he says he’s still putting together the details: an All-American husband who is in line to run a major aviation company and who might have cancer but has not told any of his closest loved ones, if so. He makes frequent visits to his home state but doesn’t visit his family, who didn’t even come to his wedding. And he wants a random stranger to mercy kill him. Clara squints for a moment and then wishes him good luck. He asks if that is a sincere wish and she leaves without responding.
Fletch returns to the Buena Vista Country Club and this time the waiter recognizes him and welcomes him back. Fletch doffs his invisible cap. This time he finds Joan mid-tennis match and he admires her intensity for a moment. The man (Danny DeVito) next to him says it’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? Fletch asks if he’s talking about her tennis skill or her legs. “Well she’s my daughter so I’ll let you guess which one,” he responds. Fletch nearly spits out his drink. “Jon Collins, Collins Aviation. Have we met?” Fletch shakes Jon’s hand but continues to look back and forth between him and his daughter, astonished by their height difference. He wants to ask about it but can’t find the words.
Before he can respond, Joan notices them and makes her way over. She reminds her father that this is Ron, a part of Alan’s bachelor party. Jon has a look of realization and says when you get to his age, all faces kind of blend together. Fletch understands. They catch up and Fletch gets insight into what Jon really thinks of Alan. He clearly thinks highly of his son-in-law and his ability to lead the company. Jon lets him on a little open secret that he is actually looking to finally step down later this year, finally passing the business off to Alan. Fletch congratulates him. Jon says he must be going but says it was nice meeting again. Before he goes, he whispers into Fletch’s ear “You shoulda seen the legs on her mother.” Fletch cracks a smile.
When it’s just him and Joan, she asks if he wants to join her tennis match. He laughs and points to his arm, saying he has terrible aim. The waiter approaches them and lets them know that the Underwoods have just checked in, if he would like to see them. Fletch thanks the waiter but, as soon as he leaves, says he and Joan should go talk somewhere a little quieter. She says her family has a private dressing room. There, Fletch tells her that he has been thinking about her compliment about his bone structure. He wants to reciprocate the favor and, before he can say any more, she kisses him. “That what you had in mind?,” she asks. “Something like that.” She straddles on top of him and they start to undress.
As Fletch is leaving the country club (with a big ol’ smile), he notices a car trailing him. It pulls up and the window rolls down. It’s his first ex-wife Linda (Zoey Deutch). Linda Fletcher, née Greene now Greene again. She says she misses him. He says she probably shouldn’t be seeing him; doesn’t she have an active course case against him? Can she call the lawyer off? Linda shakes her head and says that must be the other ex-wife. She asks him if he’d ever move back in with her. He asks if she still has the cats. She nods. He says she knows that’s his dealbreaker. She says she understands. He wipes her tear away and tells her to think back on the good times. She admits that it was her lawyer. He knows. “I really do love you, Fletch,” she says. “Me too,” he responds before walking away.
Fletch has organized a soccer match with his friends on the beach when they see a gaggle of undercover police cars pulling up. Everyone starts scattering in various directions as Chief Lawrence makes his way towards them and directs the cops with him to start chasing them down. Fletch notices that they were able to nab Bobbi, who’s face-down in the sand in handcuffs. This enrages Fletch and he begins swinging at the officers, engaging in a prolonged tussle. Eventually, he gets clubbed in the head with a baton and immediately blacks out.
He wakes up in a cold sweat and finds his head in Bobbi’s lap as she tends to his wounds and cares for him. He dozes back off to sleep.
When he wakes again, he finds Bobbi pale and slumped over. Something is wrong. After shaking her a few times, he realizes she has overdosed. He hurries to a payphone to call an ambulance to check on her. He then beelines over to Fat Sam’s lean-to and tells him what has happened and that his drugs are to blame. Fat Sam suddenly sobers up, saying they’re not his drugs. He’s just the middleman, man. Fletch is not having it.
He makes his way to the police station and demands to see Chief Lawrence. Still bruised up from the night before, the cops start giving him dirty looks for assaulting one of their own. The Chief brings him in and asks what the problem is. First, Fletch asks why he didn’t get arrested last night. Lawrence leans in and says that he knows Fletch works at the paper. He’s friends with Frank Jaffe, the paper’s editor. He tells Fletch that he must identify himself as such to the officers when they arrive in that kind of situation. Fletch informs him that a young woman named Bobbi overdosed this morning on the laced drugs provided by Fat Sam. The paper is planning to run a story on the whole operation but he wanted to give the police a head’s up. Chief Lawrence has a look over concern upon hearing of the overdose. He suggests - and then demands - that Fletch delay the story so that the force can handle it. Fletch reluctantly agrees.
As Fletch leaves the police station, he notices a car tailing him once again. This one is a Rolls Royce, surely not Linda. He turns a few corners to try to lose the car but it does not work. When it finally catches up to him, the window rolls down to reveal it is Alan. He is suspicious about why Fletch was talking to the police. Fletch insists it had to do with something on the beach. Alan seemingly accepts this answer. Fletch asks to confirm if everything is still in place for the plan. Alan confirms, saying that the plane ticket has been booked in Fletch’s name. Fletch takes a long hard look at Alan, as if to see any traces of illness. But he eventually nods and says that he’s looking forward to seeing Argentina.
Fletch stops at a payphone and calls Alan’s father again, still under the guise of an insurance agent. Marvin actually sounds a little pleased to hear Fletch’s voice. Fletch wants to talk more about Alan’s athletic background. Marvin raves about his son’s stint as the star quarterback on his high school football team. Pro scouts were coming to watch him play. Fletch asks why Alan didn’t pursue football after high school. Marvin says he got distracted by the ladies. Could keep his head focused on the game, was too infatuated with a brunette who lives across town, Sally Ann Cushing. After a beat, he also admits that he may have pushed his son too hard, including through multiple head injuries—acknowledging that might not be the best thing to tell an insurance agent about his pilot son. Fletch asks whatever happened to Sally Ann Cushing: Up and married an older gentleman, broke Alan’s heart, had a son. No wonder Alan got as far from Pennsylvania as possible. Heard she got a divorce recently, wonder how she’s going to raise that kid on her own. Fletch thanks him and Marvin asks if he’s gotten that Bronze Star yet. Fletch says no.
June 27th. The day the murder is supposed to take place. To everyone’s surprise, Fletch shows up to the office on time (and wearing shoes). He sees a note on his desk from the receptionist saying that a lawyer stopped by and he is being summoned to court tomorrow morning for missed alimony. He crumples up the paper and tosses it in the trash. He requests to talk with Clara in her office.
Clara reminds him of the deadline she gave him for the beach story. He says he wants to talk about that. He recounts the details thus far. How he tried to get arrested and went so far as fighting with an officer but still wouldn’t get taken in. How Fat Sam is so spaced out and said he was a middle man. How Bobbi is - was? - the only one ever arrested and how Chief Lawrence seemed alarmed when he informed him of her overdose. Clara takes a moment to say she’s sorry to hear that and asks how she’s doing. Fletch isn’t sure. Suddenly something clicks in Clara’s eyes. She doesn’t even want to say it: what if the Chief is the one selling the drugs? As they know, he’s often taking vacations to Central America. Fletch says that he then arrests Bobbi any time supply is running low so that she can redistribute to Fat Sam. Rinse and repeat. Well, until now, now that his drug mule is in the hospital. They are interrupted by Frank, making Clara immediately pause. Frank says someone is here to talk to Fletch. Fletch gulps and then defers the responsibility to Clara of telling Frank about the Chief Lawrence theory. Her face is a mix of anger at his slyness and a pride in cracking the story.
Fletch is shocked to find Joan Collins Stanwyck waiting for him at his desk. She says she’s not stupid. How could she not be suspicious when a stranger supposedly from Alan’s past shows up out of the blue and begins asking her questions. As if Alan’s recent sketchy behavior wasn’t enough. Fletch says he can explain but, for now, the most important thing is that she stay here for the day. Her husband is expecting her to be out and about. She asks why that matters and he says that he is expecting Fletch to arrive at their home alone. And that Alan could be potentially dangerous. She tells him that he has until midnight. In a low tone, he asks that—if she suspected he was undercover—then why did she sleep with him? She smiles and says that he looks very similar to Alan without the actual baggage of their relationship.
“Let me guess. Star quarterback at your Pennsylvania high school. Skips town after being heartbroken by your high school sweetheart. You reconnect and learn she is having marital difficulties. You start flying out to see her nearly every month. You make plans to start a new life with her and her son. Live anonymously in Argentina on the money you’ve been stealing fro-“
Fletch is interrupted by Alan, who’s sitting across smugly in his den. His hair has been colored to look exactly like Fletch’s and he’s wearing a sun-faded Oilers jersey. He says that Sally Ann didn’t break her heart. He broke hers because he had to get out of town and away from his strict family. And the kid is their kid. “But continue.”
“This is where I come in. You scout the slums of Corpus Christi to find someone who looks similar to you. You’d kill me and then stage a car accident, where the charred remains share your bone structure and are probably even wearing some of your accessories. Meanwhile, under the guise of me, you board the charted plane under my name and identity. Your one mistake is that the bum you chose just so happened to be a journalist at the Star Tribune.”
Alan throws his hands up and says he’s been caught. If Fletch would like, he can do what he came here to do: murder Alan Stanwyck. Fletch is one step ahead, noting the gun that Stanwyck left for him is not loaded. He was going to be made to look and die a fool. Fletch says that he’s not going to kill Alan, obviously. He’s not even going to write a story on him. Technically he’s not committed any crimes. Alan paces the room. Fletch advises Alan find another, less destructive way to be with Sally Ann. Joan will be fine. Before Alan can respond, glass shatters in the room and a bullet rips through Stanwyck’s chest. He falls to the floor and Fletch is in shock. Alan, in his last breaths, asks who shot him. Fletch, peaking through the window, says it was the chief of police. Must’ve seen the clothes and hair and thought he was killing Fletch. Alan is shaking and tells Fletch to nail the bastard. Fletch calms Alan in his final moments and says he already has.
Upon escaping the mansion, Fletch is at a payphone and calls emergency services to the Stanwyck home. He then places a call to the Star-Tribune where a young staffer answers. Fletcher says he has a story he needs dictated. He recounts the story of Alan Stanwyck’s murder by the chief of police and the related drug scandal. The junior staffer realizes that the time when Fletch said the body was found hasn’t even happened yet. Fletch just keeps saying “I know” and finishes the story. One last thing: if a lawyer shows up asking for him tomorrow, just say he’s not available and that the alimony money can be found in his desk drawer.
The lawyer knocks furiously on Fletch’s door. A military representative arrives behind him, Bronze Star in hand, and asks if he’s Irwin Maurice Fletcher.
Fletch checks on Bobbi in the hospital and then boards a taxi to the airport, where he boards a chartered flight to Argentina. A free vacation sounds pretty nice right about now.
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