Having announced in its very first scene that it isn't hung up on being a traditional mystery, "Handsome" goes on to prove that it's not all that interested in being a coherent movie, either. It's more of a loose assortment of scenes of Los Angelenos hanging out and talking that occasionally remembers to move its plot along. The detective's investigation is a pretext to set up the next scene between him and an eccentric character who might or might not have anything to do with the investigation—usually not. Meanwhile, Ben Folds' sprightly score chugs along underneath the action, its instrumentation evoking such laid-back fare as "Midnight Run" and TV's "The Rockford Files."
There's a somewhat intriguing not-quite-romantic chemistry between Handsome and the babysitter's former employer, a dental assistant named Nora (Christine Woods), and a lot of cheap jokes at the expense of Handsome's oversexed partner, Fleur Scozzari (Natasha Lyonne), who isn't above asking a suspect out on a date. There are a couple of sharp scenes between Handsome and the coroner, Lester (William Stanford Davis), and a funny bit where a bus full of tourists checking out the sites of infamous Hollywood crimes just happens to be driving by the scene of the babysitter's murder and decides to add a stop.
But much of the film's running time consists of scenes of Handsome simply going about his routine. He walks his dog—a part great Dane, part dalmatian, from appearances—and gets in an argument with a neighbor, a former detective named Durante (Eddie Pepitone), about whether some poop on Lester's lawn was her doing. Midway through the scene, Durante's wife Esta (Leah Remini) comes outside, warns against assuming that this is a good evening, then begins playing the accordion. Later in the movie there's a scene where Handsome gets some burgers from a drive-thru place and tells the fast food worker, a born-again Christian, that he's going to quit eating junk after this. The teenager congratulates him for taking a step toward becoming his "best self."
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46hmKeco6S6pnmRaWhw