You probably know Cillian Murphy as the brooding, razor-sharp leader of the Peaky Blinders or as the haunted physicist in Oppenheimer. But long before the Oscars and the flat caps, there was a weird little blip in his filmography. It’s called Watching the Detectives. Released in 2007, it’s a movie that feels like a time capsule of an era when indie cinema was obsessed with "manic pixie dream girls" and video store nostalgia.
Honestly, it’s a strange watch today.
The film stars Murphy as Neil, a total cinephile who owns a struggling independent video store. He lives his life through the lens of old noir films and hard-boiled detective tropes. Then, enters Violet, played by Lucy Liu. She’s chaotic. She’s loud. She basically decides to turn Neil's life into a real-world movie plot by playing elaborate, sometimes mean-spirited pranks on him. It’s a romantic comedy, sure, but it’s one that leans heavily into the "meta" territory that was so popular in the mid-2000s.
The Problem With Watching the Detectives
If you look at the reviews from when it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, they weren't exactly glowing. Variety called it "strained" and "cloying." The biggest issue? The chemistry. Or maybe the lack of it. Murphy is a phenomenal actor—we know this now—but in 2007, he was still shaking off the "creepy guy" label from Red Eye and Batman Begins. Putting him in a rom-com felt like a gamble.
Liu, on the other hand, is dialed up to eleven. Her character, Violet, is the kind of person who would be exhausting to know in real life. She lies constantly "for the plot" of their relationship. While the film tries to frame this as whimsical and life-affirming, it often just feels like gaslighting with a soundtrack. For many viewers, the core premise of Watching the Detectives—that love is found through deception and roleplay—just didn't land.
Director Paul Soter, a member of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe (the guys behind Super Troopers), was clearly trying to make a love letter to film nerds. You can see the DNA of High Fidelity and Garden State in here. But while those movies managed to find a heartbeat under the pretension, this one feels a bit hollow. It’s a movie about movies, which is always a risky move because you risk alienating anyone who hasn't seen Double Indemnity fifty times.
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A Cast That Deserved More?
It’s wild to see who shows up in this. You’ve got Jason Sudeikis in a small role before he was a household name. You have Bill Hader. These are heavy hitters in the comedy world now. Watching them in this low-budget indie is like looking at a high school yearbook. They’re talented, but they’re clearly working with a script that’s more interested in being "clever" than being funny.
The film never even got a proper theatrical release in the United States. It went straight to DVD. That’s usually a death sentence for a movie’s legacy, and for a long time, Watching the Detectives was just a trivia answer for Cillian Murphy completionists.
Why We Are Still Talking About It
So, why does it keep popping up on streaming services and in "forgotten movies" lists?
Part of it is the "Cillian Effect." Since his massive surge in popularity, fans are digging through everything he’s ever touched. There is something genuinely fascinating about watching him try to be a regular, bumbling guy. He’s so used to playing characters with immense gravity that seeing him get flustered by Lucy Liu’s antics is... well, it’s different.
Also, the film captures a very specific moment in tech history. Neil’s video store is a relic. The movie arrived right as Netflix (the DVD-by-mail version) was starting to kill the "mom and pop" rental shops. There is a genuine sense of mourning for physical media in the film that resonates way more now than it did in 2007. We’ve lost that culture of browsing shelves and talking to a grumpy clerk about Godard. In that sense, the movie is accidentally poignant.
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Is It Actually Worth a Watch?
If you go in expecting a masterpiece, you’re going to be annoyed. If you go in expecting a breezy, somewhat annoying, but visually interesting indie flick, you might actually have a good time.
The visual style is punchy. Soter uses noir-inspired lighting and camera angles to mimic the films Neil loves. It’s stylish. It’s also short. At around 90 minutes, it doesn't overstay its welcome, even if the characters are occasionally grating.
But let’s be real. It’s a "completionist" movie. You watch it because you love the actors or because you’re a film nerd who likes spotting all the references to classic cinema. It’s not going to change your life, and it’s certainly not the best work of anyone involved.
The Takeaway for Cinephiles
Watching the Detectives serves as a reminder that even the biggest stars have some "misses" in their closet. But "miss" might be too harsh. It’s an experiment. It’s a remnant of a time when indie films were allowed to be weird and messy without needing to be "content" for a giant franchise.
If you’re planning on checking it out, keep these things in mind:
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- Adjust your expectations for the "MPDG" trope. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope was at its peak in 2007. Violet is a textbook example. If that character archetype bugs you, this movie will be a tough sell.
- Look for the cameos. Sudeikis and Hader are the highlights. Their energy brings a bit of grounded comedy to a film that sometimes floats too far into its own head.
- Pay attention to the background. The video store sets are a dream for anyone who misses the era of VHS and early DVD. The posters and shelving are curated with a lot of love.
- Compare it to Murphy’s later work. It’s a masterclass in how much an actor can evolve. The intensity he brings to Peaky Blinders is nowhere to be found here, replaced by a soft, almost vulnerable awkwardness.
For those looking to stream it, it often bounces around the free-with-ads services like Tubi or Pluto TV. It’s the perfect "Saturday afternoon when you’re bored" movie. Just don't expect a detective story—it's a movie about people who wish they were in a detective story, which is a very different thing altogether.
Ultimately, the film is a footnote, but a colorful one. It reminds us that before the world saw Cillian Murphy as a titan of the screen, he was just another actor trying to find his footing in a quirky romantic comedy about a guy who really, really liked movies.
Actionable Insights for Movie Fans
To get the most out of watching this era of film, consider doing a "triple feature" of mid-2000s meta-indies. Pair Watching the Detectives with Stranger than Fiction and Be Kind Rewind. This gives you a broader perspective on how Hollywood was grappling with the transition from analog to digital storytelling and the obsession with self-referential narratives. If you're a physical media collector, use the movie as a checklist for the noir classics Neil mentions; it's actually a decent primer for 1940s cinema history if you can look past the romance.