Recent Video Release Offers A Mild Respite From The Sad State Of This Year’s Summer Movies

What did we moviegoers do to Hollywood to deserve the woeful slate of films that were unleashed upon us this summer? Save for a few, scant exceptions, the flicks of 2001’s busiest season were incredibly underwhelming. Plus, to add insult to injury for local film fans, one of the more intriguing mainstream films of the last few weeks, O, has yet to arrive in our area. Yikes! What to do? Well, for this week’s column I took a trip to the video store and rented Proof of Life, the thriller from last winter that garnered more ink for the alleged romance of its two leads than for its relative merits as a movie.

Inspired by a Vanity Fair article and non-fiction book, Proof of Life stars Russell Crowe as Terry Thorne, a kidnap-and-ransom specialist (K&R for short) who is sent by corporate bigwigs into difficult situations to barter for the lives of individuals who’ve been abducted. Thorne’s latest assignment requires him to travel to Latin America where a US engineer, Peter Bowman (David Morse), has been taken hostage. Bowman’s wife (Meg Ryan), who receives a call from his captors demanding $6 million for his safe return, is reluctantly forced to lean upon Thorne’s expertise and “play the game” for her husband’s life.

Ryan, who gets top billing and reportedly received $15 million for her part in the film, tones down her perky persona and is minus the usual bubbliness she exhibits in her comedy roles to play a chain-smoking, stressed-out woman facing an inconceivable emotional ordeal. Perhaps her more restrained manner can also be partly attributed to the presence of Crowe, who is quietly charismatic here as Thorne. There are very little histrionics in his performance here, and his understated approach works quite well.

Unfortunately, screenwriter Tony Gilroy and director Taylor Hackford do not completely follow suit.  Instead of sticking to a lean, taut structure that focuses solely on the inherently traumatic situation of having a loved one fall prey to hostile forces (and then having to coldly bargain for their life), the filmmakers try to add layers by creating a scene of dissension between the spouses (their last moments together were contentious!) and an ineffectual scene with Thorne and his estranged son. One can hardly blame them for attempting to add some meat to the bone of their story structure: often we criticize filmmakers for spending more time on elaborate situations and putting less effort into characterization. However, the premise of this film is more than adequate to support the weight of its running time, and there is really no need for Hackford and his crew to pad the story.

Now, that having been said, there is plenty enough here to recommend a viewing. Hackford, whose last film was the over-the-top, excessive Devil’s Advocate, rebounds and gives audiences a more entertaining film that is more in line with the solid dramatics of his Dolores Claiborne than the hamminess of his previous entry. Also notable are the performances of Morse (who is given some really interesting material as the captive seeking escape from his tormentors) and David Caruso, who plays one of Thorne’s pals who is also in K&R.

Proof of Life is rated R for language, intense situations and occasional (though not especially graphic) violence. It’s not as engrossing as it might have potentially been, but it’s a more entertaining option than most of what’s on the big screen these days.