Genre: Crime/Thriller
Director: John Hillcoat
Writer: Dwight Gallo
Based on the novel by James Ellroy
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Don Johnson, Johnny Knoxville, Rose Byrne, Carla Gugino, Melanie Lynskey, Rodrigo Santoro, Ethan Embry, Brooklynn Prince, Alicia Witt, John C. Reilly
Plot: Los Angeles - 1983. Legendary LAPD Sgt.-Detective Lloyd Hopkins (Vince Vaughn) is called onto the scene of a discovered body in an apartment building. When he enters the house he finds the aftermath of the brutal murder of a young woman. There is blood every where as the woman's body hangs over her bed. Hopkins notices a great deal of feminist literature on her bookshelf, as well as two classified ads for anonymous sexual encounters. He heads to a bar after work and has several drinks.
When he returns home he accidentally knocks over a lamp, waking up his 8-year-old daughter Molly (Brooklynn Prince). Molly begs her father for a story. He takes her back to her bed. He then launches into a graphic description of one of his cases, much to the girl's delight. His wife Penny (Melanie Lynskey) orders him to stop, and they have an argument over the inappropriateness of his stories. Frustrated, he calls up his buddy Dutch Pelz (Don Johnson). Dutch was Hopkins' first partner and mentor when he first entered the detective ranks. They meet up at the same bar Hopkins recently left and decide to they go on a stakeout for a case of Dutch's. They catch the suspect threatening his girlfriend (Alicia Witt) and confront him. He pulls a gun on them, so Hopkins shoots him. Hopkins asks Dutch to stay at the scene and file the paperwork so that he can take the suspect's girlfriend home and have sex with her.
Hopkins tracks down Joanie Pratt (Carla Gugino) through the classified ads at the victim's apartment. Pratt is a failed-actress turned escort. She also hosts swinger parties, and the victim was planning on attending one of the parties to research a book. Back at the station, Hopkins opens a letter that was sent to the victim. It is a poem written in blood. Hopkins realizes he is now hunting a serial killer. He asks Dutch to get him all the files for unsolved murders of single women in the past 15 years. When he returns home, he finds a note from his wife explaining that she has taken their daughter and left. Pratt phones Hopkins, and he goes over to her place to have sex. After narrowing down the unsolved murders to a few cases, Hopkins summons Deputy Sheriff Delbert Whitey Haines (Johnny Knoxville) to a meeting and interrogates him about two suicides that took place on June 10th, one year apart, on his beat. Later, Hopkins breaks into Haines' apartment and discovers a wiretap which has captured Haines dealing drugs.
Short on further leads, Hopkins decides to see if there is anything to the feminist literature found in the apartment. In the process of canvassing feminist bookstores, Hopkins visits one run by Kathleen McCarthy (Rose Byrne) who agrees to accompany him to a party at Dutch's house. They have sex after the party back at her apartment. While in bed, McCarthy reveals a high school trauma where she was gang raped by a group of boys who were hostile towards her feminist poetry club. She also tells Hopkins that an anonymous suitor has sent her flowers and a poem every year. Looking through her old yearbook, Hopkins is stunned to find a picture of Haines and a male prostitute nicknamed Birdman whose name was mentioned on the surveillance tapes made at Haines' apartment.
When Birdman (Ethan Embry) turns up dead in a motel room, the wall is smeared with blood, and the motto from McCarthy's high school is written in the stains. Hopkins returns to Haines's apartment and surprises him as he comes home, carrying Birdman's police file. Haines claims Birdman is simply his snitch, but Hopkins knows that Haines was running drugs and male prostitutes through Birdman. He puts a gun to Haines's head and gets him to confess to raping McCarthy with Birdman in high school. Haines offers information on police corruption to get off the hook. Then, he tries to surprise Hopkins with a shotgun, but Hopkins kills him.
Dutch tells Hopkins to lay low while the mess he has created is sorted out. Pratt invites Hopkins over for sex, but when he gets there, she has been murdered and placed on the stove in the position that she last had sex with Hopkins. At the station, Hopkins and Dutch get McCarthy to go through the yearbook against a cross-reference of suspects. They are interrupted by their superior Captain Fred Gaffney (John C. Reilly) who suspends Hopkins. When Hopkins returns to the interrogation room, he sees that McCarthy has run to a phone booth across the street. She calls Bobby Franco (Rodrigo Santoro), who was in the poetry club with her, warning him that Hopkins is dangerous and will suspect that he is the killer. She realized Franco has sent her the poems every year, and she refuses to believe that he could be a murderer. When Hopkins grabs the phone, she hears Franco threaten him and realizes that he is in fact the killer. Franco and Hopkins agree to meet at the high school, where they have a shootout in the gym. When Franco runs out of bullets, he taunts Hopkins, believing that he has to lawfully arrest him. Hopkins tells Franco that he's suspended, and quickly shoots Franco three times. Dutch arrives on the scene and tells Hopkins to get lost before Gaffney catches wind of the events. Hopkins heads back to the bar and has another drink. He decides to call his wife from a payphone in the bar. He and his wife talk for a minute before Hopkins asks to speak to his daughter. Hopkins then starts describing his latest case to her.
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