I enjoy Clint Eastwood in everything that doesn't have a circus or a monkey. That said, I'm sure he can find something better to do now that he's too old to play Dirty Harry anymore. I had a few problems with this film but was generally entertained. Ed Harris makes the difference in this one. I could add that I never saw Scott Glenn play a buffoon, either.
Ok, this is a story about a burglar who is interrupted in the middle of a burglary by two people coming into the house he is burgling. He hides in a closet and witnesses a murder. This murder involves the president of the US, and thereby hangs the entire tale. He starts to leave the country, sees the president with the widower he has created, and decides to stay and fight the guy. Oh, yeah, he has an adult daughter who is a DA, er, a prosecutor, and who he has never been close to. Or so she thinks. Clint Eastwood has been close to her all the time -- he's a master of disguise and a good photographer besides.
Question: He's running away from the secret service, through the woods at night. They are chasing him with night goggles on. They see him clearly several times, but never fire a shot. Why don't they just shoot him there? Answer: It's too early in the movie for them to kill him. Then what would the story be about? Implication: The Hero gets away in the beginning easier than in the end.
Good Line from Ed Harris: "A strong burglar with a weak mind. Obviously another open and shut case." I enjoyed all of the scenes featuring Harris in this film. His chemistry with Eastwood was especially fun to watch.
Good Image: As the Daughter got a headache, her teapot began to whistle. Multimedia storytelling.
Good Image: The Daughter's Refrigerator. Clint Eastwood looks in it, she imagines he's looking in it. Later, she sees the food he put in it. It becomes a bulletin board for messages from father to daughter and vice versa.
Good exchange: "He doesn't want any money." "What are you, a psychiatrist now?" "No, I read the back." "(reading) I don't want any money."
I wish that just once, they'd: There was one scene I called a Gun Ballet. Two hidden assassins wait for their shot at Eastwood. They are assembling their guns methodically, like preparation for religious rites. Click. Twist. Click. Snap. First one, then the other. They would aim them at people in the area and pull the trigger. Click. No bullet, I guess. It can't be that they are going to try to kill Clint Eastwood with a click-gun-- it will take a very loud noise.. I kept waiting for someone to pinch his finger in one of those things, or to have extra parts left over, or to accidentally shoot someone while setting up the sights. It was so close to slapstick, but it never went over the line. I think I enjoyed this scene too much.
Irony in the movies: In one scene, the daughter is in the hospital, and Eastwood is in the room. A bad guy comes in to kill her, and Eastwood gets the upper hand and kills the bad guy instead. All of this in the little hospital room, with the daughter sleeping. The dialog goes: "Daddy." "Go to sleep, darling." This is repeated at least a million times a day by little girls whose dads are turning off the lights or closing the windows, not straddling a secret service guy on the floor that they are in the act of killing.
On a five star scale, this movie goes right in the middle. Two and a half stars.
Reviewed: 7/24/97