I finally caught up with the third “Fletch” movie, the first one in almost forty years, and one which is not a continuation of the two previous Chevy Chase vehicles but more of a rebooting of the character with Jon Hamm in the role.  I was rather ambivalent about the Chevy Chase duo, which were certainly entertaining, but I definitely like this one better.

Greg Mottola’s adaptation of the second Gregory McDonald novel about Irvin Fletcher (the first Chevy Chase movie used the first novel as its source) immediately puts Fletch (Jon Hamm) under police scrutiny when he finds and reports a dead woman’s body in the Boston home where he is temporarily staying.  Fletch is there to locate missing artworks that his Italian girlfriend (Lorenza Izzo) is trying to keep her greedy stepmother (Marcia Gay Harden) from acquiring, even as her father is kidnapped and the paintings demanded for ransom.  Fletch runs afoul of the local police and pretends to be several people to locate the art while keeping himself alive and out of jail.

What works in this rebooting is the comic tone, which deftly avoids the darker, brutal aspects of the story while allowing Fletch to have a lark of an adventure posing as different people, misleading the police (who are themselves portrayed rather comically) and conveying his charm again and again.  I found the story compelling enough and thoroughly enjoyed Fletch’s nonchalance as he squeezes himself out of one predicament right into another.  I can certainly imagine that this character could support a franchise (as he has through McDonald’s books); alas, the poor box office of this film has pretty much doomed any franchise hopes.

Ultimately, however, I settled on 2 1/2 stars instead of the 3 that I felt about it because Fletch remains such an enigma.  We never really get to know the guy, other than he enjoys fooling everybody trying to pin him down.  My feeling is that audiences just didn’t connect well with the movie because we never really get to know this trickster, and therefore find it difficult to root for or care about him.  He’s certainly entertaining, but he never reveals his inner core, and thus he remains an odd acquaintance rather than a close friend.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  28 June 2026.