It may or may not be a good career move for Jon Hamm to play a role once associated with Chevy Chase. But that’s what he’s doing in this screwball mystery caper, directed by Greg “Superbad” Mottola, based on the rascally character originally created in a series of novels by author and former Boston Globe reporter Gregory Mcdonald.
Hamm plays Irvin “Fletch” Fletcher, the journalist turned private investigator, a rumpled ladies’ man forever getting into scrapes. The part was taken by Chase in a couple of films in the 80s, although Hamm plays Fletch as a sophisticated wisecrack merchant, without the broad comedy that Chase went for. His Fletch is a fast-talking sleuth who is engaged for a job in Rome by the beautiful and mysterious Italian heiress Angela de Grassi (played by Lorenza Izzo, who was Leonardo DiCaprio’s Italian fiancée in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood).
