‘Diamond’ review: Andy Garcia directs and stars as a noirish detective in disappointingly superficial LA story

Dir/scr: Andy Garcia. US. 2026. 118mins

Despite being set in the present Day, Diamond aims to evoke the nostalgic elegance of bygone Los Angeles noirs —but ultimately feels more like a retread  than a witty reinvention. Directing his second feature, Andy Garcia also stars as a proudly old-fashioned gumshoe navigating the complexities of the modern world as he tries to prove that a seductive widow did not kill her wealthy husband. From its jazzy score to its protagonist’s sharp three-piece suits and fedora, this whodunit conjures myriad memories of noir’s heyday while paling in comparison to the greatness of those classic films.

Conjures myriad memories of noir’s heyday while paling in comparison 

Diamond bows in an Out Of Competition slot in Cannes, and its notable cast should make it an attractive proposition for buyers. Garcia (who previously directed 2005’s The Lost City) is joined by, among others, Rosemarie Dewitt, Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman, Vicky Krieps and Bill Murray, and the cosy genre trappings will also be a selling point. But humdrum reviews may diminish enthusiasm.

Joe Diamond (Garcia) lives his life like it’s still the 1940s, driving a vintage Ford Coupe and narrating his tale through hardboiled voiceover full of hard-earned wisdom. (Sample line: “L.A. is a lady unlike any other.”) Known locally for his odd demeanour and his recent solving of a quirky case involving some missing flamingos, Joe is hired by Sharon (Krieps), a former dancer suspected of murdering her powerful husband, to find the real killer.

One of Diamond’s best moments occurs near the very beginning as we observe Joe’s diligent preparations for his day, including adjusting his pocket square just so and carefully polishing his shoes. The scene’s moody look and feel convince viewers that this is a period noir — only for us to then see Joe walk out on the street, where he is nearly run over by a self-driving Waymo vehicle. In this brief sequence, Garcia cleverly illustrates the film’s central tension between Joe’s infatuation with an outdated brand of classy sophistication and the crass, technology-driven modern Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, after neatly establishing this juxtaposition of past and present, Diamond fails to find many other fun variations on the bittersweet joke. Working from his own screenplay, Garcia has no problem portraying this throwback private eye, who exudes tough-guy charisma with a touch of kindness underneath the gruff exterior. But far too often, his dialogue is subpar noir-speak without the rat-a-tat-tat crackle that’s essential to the genre. And that’s when Garcia isn’t trying to mine strained humour from the fact that Joe has no idea about trendy terminology like “taking a selfie” or doesn’t understand what TikTok is. 

Even worse, the actor-filmmaker surrounds himself with cliched types that offer few novel wrinkles. Fraser’s smug LAPD detective Danny Boy and Krieps’ femme fatale-ish Sharon struggle to bring some vitality to familiar roles, but there’s no knowing wink or chameleonic elan to the underwhelming performances.

Much could be forgiven if Diamond’s mystery was a corker but, despite the occasional nods to indelible L.A. noirs like Chinatown, the narrative trudges along, introducing bland additional figures such as Joe’s pseudo-sage best friend Jimbo (Murray) and Hoffman’s smart-aleck coroner Harry. Garcia and cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt do fine work shooting the city’s glorious, venerable downtown locales — including The Bradbury Building and Cole’s French Dip — to help strengthen the sense of the forgotten L.A. that Joe adores. But the film luxuriates in the genre’s superficial trappings without supplying a comparably stylish story.

Among the ensemble, the one standout beyond Garcia is Rosemarie Dewitt as an enigmatic stranger who catches the eye of this loveless bachelor who’s seemingly married to his job. Dewitt effortlessly plays a timeless, bewitching beauty but, sadly, the character will eventually serve an important plot function, revealing a dark secret in Joe’s past that is meant to be tragic but, instead, feels manipulative and wholly implausible. While costume designer Deborah L. Scott has a fine time clothing Garcia and Dewitt in fetching threads from a supposedly more urbane era, Diamond merely plays dress-up.