Intriga

While I don't watch a steady diet of made for TV thrillers I watch some of them for the cast members and since this stars Scott Glenn I knew I couldn't go wrong as he often is better than the material given. And while he was nearly great as always the movie itself was just ok.

Crawford (Glenn) is a CIA operative that stays in Brussels and in the beginning is asked by Doggett (William Atherton) to go to Bucharest for help his mentor and friend Higbe (Robert Loggia) to escape since some years earlier he defected to Russia. Once Crawford arrives in Bucharest and finds Higbe, they'll do their best for escape from terrorists and return home safely not before a stint to Italy.

Loggia was also good as Glenn's friend but my main problem with this movie is that in some points it was slow and hard to follow but there is yet another positive: since the day before I saw the original MAN ON FIRE and the second part of this was shot in Venice I assume that Scott Glenn loved to go to Italy for filming his movies back in the 1980s.

Overall, an ok TV movie that fans of the genre or of the stars will undoubdtely like a bit.

The action of this espionage thriller takes place while the iron curtain was still down before 1989, and it is a kind of last cry of the Cold War. The agent Scott Glenn posted in Brussels gets the assignment to go to Bucharest to get an old spy out, who was his mentor with a long relationship story with many problems. He gets his old colleague out of Bucharest all right, but there the problems begin: Scott Glenn understands that Robert Loggia knows too much and that he is dying. The situation is complicated when they reach Venice, and Glenn is told by his superiors to drop the case. Nevertheless he ultimately succeeds in getting his old friend home dropping a few bombs on the way. The film is a B-feature, there is nothing special about it, but the scenery is fascinating as they pass through Bucharest, old Yugoslavia before the civil wars, Venice and Geneva, starting off in Brussels; and Scott Glenn is always reliable for making interesting roles. This is no exception, the story is good and intriguing to say the least, and he also has some lovely girl friends on the way helping him. Or else he would never have succeeded with this mission impossible, which has quite a lot of sensitive human factors on the way, as stealing an old dying agent out from behind the iron curtain is no trifle.

I have recently watched this film twice and really enjoyed it. American Scott Glenn is a CIA operative based in Brussels who is asked to go to Bucharest to arrange the escape of his former friend and mentor, who some years earlier had defected to the Russians. This is not a glossy production and the grainy look of the film I think adds to the atmosphere of Eastern European locations. A sprinkling of British actors appear like Eleanor Bron who helps him with his escape plan in Bucharest, and the lovely Cherie Lunghi who is an old girl friend of Glenn's and runs an art gallery in Venice. Leading the chase for Glenn is good old Martin Shaw playing A KGB Colonel. A far cry from The Professionals. I am fond of espionage films and thought this a good spy yarn.

Recently I've gotten onto a kick of enjoying unglamorous thrillers, that don't involve wire-work, jujitsu acrobatics, special effects or CGI, and this film fit the bill. It is a sometimes gritty but highly realistic look at what it might take to smuggle someone out of a foreign country without the benefit of a private plane, fancy gadgets or an unlimited expense account.

I don't know what '80's problem' the other reviewer had with this film, bit I thought this was a well-done film that only suffered from the economy of being made-for-TV - those 'shortcomings' aren't about the budget, rather they're about pacing. The opening sequence leaves a question unanswered for far too long, and the final scene, which concerns the death of one of the characters is just a bit too 'pat'. But then again, I may be spoiled by the patience exhibited by Fred Zinnemann in his 'Day of the Jackal'.

In a certain sense, this film is a lower-budget cousin to films like 'Jackal' and 'Midnight Express'. There are lots of dead-drops and hand-offs are the product of the protagonist's advance preparation - if you don't have your eyes open, you'll miss a lot of plot-points. Scott Glenn and Robert Loggia turn in acceptable performances with only a few glitches that are directorial errors, rather than errors made by the performers. If you're in the mood for a thriller that doesn't parade any twenty-somethings - or, for that matter, thirty-somethings - with a fairly intelligent script, by all means, check this one out.

Yet another Scott Glenn film (after 'Man on Fire') worthy of a remake, if only to touch up the script and give the film a proper budget.

7/10

I have to agree with vhsiv's analysis, but I think that a bigger budget would only spoil it, rather than enhance it. I think this is more typical of actual espionage, where most clandestine operatives aren't memorable faces, and that's what casting tried to do and achieved by picking Glenn and Loggia. Most people probably couldn't name -both- of these actors.

Having Matt Damon or Ben Affleck would only focus the viewer on the actor rather than the character. Basically, Glenn and Loggia look like people I see on the Metro everyday, just your average guys. It's not perfect, but I'd watch it first if it came on, definitely a priority pick.

This is along the same lines as "The Jigsaw Man" and the Harry Palmer flicks done by Michael Caine, or solid cold war character fiction done in the late '60s and '70s, a la "The Defector" or "The Naked Runner" or "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold."

Two pervasive elements of intrigue are timing and opportunity, and this movie shows that mission success is intimately tied to both. The pacing may be off, but so is combat, and the slower parts are used for character development and background, and they don't detract from the film.

The art gallery owner was a good pick, also. A nice, attractive Italian woman with depth. Poor old Atherton, though, he's never going to break out of that over-achiever dweeb role.