Director: Roger Donaldson
Cast: Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Will Patton, Sean Young
Have I Seen it Before: It lived on cable in the 90s. Most people probably saw the last few minutes—which pretty much negates the need to see the movie at all—before catching an airing of something else.
Did I Like It: The question becomes during a normal screening of the film: Does it earn it’s ending?
On the tragic vibe it occasionally goes for, I’m going to say no. The relationship between Farrell (Costner), and Atwell (Young) is not so much established as it is preposterous revved from 0-60 in the span of the first reel. I’m not kidding. Scene 1: They Meet and don’t care much for each other. Scene 2: They have sex. Scene 3: They are so ridiculously in love that when she dies, his emotional distress makes more sense…
…except, it doesn’t. It’s all a ruse. Maybe Farrell got in too deep to keep up his cover (last chance for spoilers) as a Soviet agent, but there’s not a hint or an ounce of suspicion that he isn’t who he says he is until his handlers start speaking Russian?
I guess the ending doesn’t really work for me on any front. Even if it were a surprise, it’s too out of left field. As is the sudden shift in motivation when Pritchard (Patton) that allows the movie to swing wildly toward something resembling a resolution to its plot.
There’s at least some of the trappings of an 80s tech-thriller that I’m here for, and the film incorporates location shooting in Washington DC better than most films, but when it’s central reason for existing falls apart under the slightest scrutiny, that should tell us all something, right?