Believe this, I have watched this so many times, but in part. I could spout off lines in Christopher Hampton's script, at the click of a finger. I love the settings for this movie in which Gere, an English spoken doctor, falls for a newly married young woman, Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) who is earlier seen as the whore working at this seedy bar that doubles as a cat house. She's married to the honorary Consul (Caine) unaware of the affair that has sparked between friend and wife. At the start, Gere, just arriving in town, helps another guy escort a drunk Caine from one bar to infamous cat house one. It's here he sets eyes on Clara. The sex scenes are quite hot as passions run high, but Gere has trouble from the other side, involving his past, where two old friends, (one a much younger Joquian Almedia) approach him, with a kidnapping plot to snatch a consul, in return for their fellow South American prisoners to be released. Only problem is, they snatch Caine instead, not a real consul, an honorary consul. Gere, maddened by the idiocy of the mates, remains loyal. Gere's father too, is one of those prisoners, as Gere is innocently led to believe. Caine's actor mate, Bob Hoskins, plays a cop, trying to help Gere track down his old man. One scene has Gere going off at him, when they arrest 250 mentally unsound people under his care and put them temporarily in prison, but Hoskins mellows him. Gere's fate at the end of the this, where the strong arm of the law closes in, was tragic, I must say. His not so badly portrayed doctor, is a sympathetic, goodhearted and likable character. But the heavyweights are Caine, who plays drunk so good and being funny too about it, where no nonsense Hoskins is solid. Elpidia is just pretty scenery really. But really there's something too brief about whole affair of the story here, despite it's good screenplay, and really it's just a passable, but involving drama + those couple of sex scenes. And near it's end too, some of the scenes are quite dark, they disjoint the action. But Gere too is a bit of a bastard in the bedroom, paying the now married Clara cash for her services as if she was still working. Also when going up to Gere's apartment, is her first tome, riding in an elevator. I liked the way Gere wore his jealousy well too, really at the sheer fact, Caine loves her. There's a lot of good scenes to find in the movie and Paul's McCartney's Brazilian intro theme was just beautiful and melodic, as it was soothing. For Gere fans, do put this different and quite enjoyable one one on your list.
