This
new film from director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil's
Advocate) will no doubt be hurt by bad press, due to that whole Meg Ryan, Russell
Crowe thing. In fact, it has been reported that Hackford even cut out a love scene
between the two. Even if it were left in, it wouldn't have made a difference.
I still wouldn't have liked the picture.
In
Proof of Life, Crowe plays a kidnapping negotiator named Terry Thorne. His new
assignment is to save engineer David Bowman (David Morse), after he is taken as
a prisoner by a group of leftist guerrillas. Things become complicated when Thorne
begins to fall for Bowman's wife (Meg Ryan.)
What
we have here are three really good actors--Crowe, Ryan, and Morse. Somehow, Hackford
and his screenwriters have found a way to waste their talent, pretty much through
out. My favorite performance in the picture comes from David Caruso. The ex-NYPD
Blue man has been out of the limelight for quite sometime, and he plays his military
man with a lot of gusto.
The
bottom line for me is that Proof of Life is just really damn dull. I guess the
story is based on a true incident, but I never felt an emotional pull between
any of the characters. The film also doesn't make any sense to me. Why the hell
does Ryan's character fall in love with Crowe. I mean she's spending all this
money and going through all this emotional turmoil to get her husband back, yet
she feels compelled to make moves on the kidnapping negotiator?
In
all honesty, I do understand the point they're trying to make in the film, but
it doesn't work. It also doesn't help that there is a surprising lack of chemistry
between Ryan and Crowe. Maybe they were afraid of getting caught. Crowe is being
praised for his work in Gladiator earlier this year and he fared better in it
than he does here. While we're on the subject, nothing compares to the work he
did in The Insider and L.A. Confidential. Those were more complex and well thought
out characters. Here, Crowe seems to be lost in the madness. Ryan is just an ornament
in Proof of Life. She's merely a damsel in distress. She needs the help of a big,
strong man to get the job done. That's sad because she showed true range in films
like When a Man Loves a Woman and Courage Under Fire. Morse (who turns in terrific
supporting performances on a regular basis) is the best of the three leads, but
because of the way Hackford and his editors have cut the picture, you never get
a true sense of his pain. Hackford spends too much time on the less interesting
stuff.
Aside from
a pretty exciting shoot-out sequence, and Morse's prison camp stuff, I found myself
uninvolved with this picture. I just couldn't connect. I think Meg Ryan has the
best line in Proof of Life when she says; "Sometimes things don't happen
for a reason. They just happen." Why this film happened is beyond me. But
if there's a lesson to be learned here, it's certainly to not let your wife make
a movie with Russell Crowe. .
