Watching the Detectives is a 2007 comedy-mystery film starring
Lucy Liu and
Cillian Murphy. Cillian Murphy is Neil, a mild-mannered video store owner who's always play-acting to add excitement into his life. Lucy Liu is Violet, an absolutely insane woman who comes into Neil's life and turns it upside down. Neil is left wondering whether an interesting life really is a curse and Violet begins to wonder if maybe she's met her match...
Tropes
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The main character, Neil, is a Manic Pixie Dream Guy who aggravates everyone with his strange antics and quirks, but then Violet comes along and out–Manic-Pixies him by taking the reckless and unusual behaviour to quite troubling extremes.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Despite multiple steamy sex scenes, the only nudity in the movie is a rear view of Neil at the end, and the tiniest glimpse of the front.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Neil is a huge noir film fanboy.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: The guys at the rental store discuss how to keep a secret password secret if they had an underground casino. Later on, it turns out Violet works for an underground casino and when the owners find out he got in by saying the secret password, they have an argument similar to the earlier scene.
