roakes

Someone should have thrown the preachy "new age" soundtrack of Message in a Bottle out with the bilge water. This is a score that tries to tell you how you should be feeling before the scene has developed to the appropriate emotional level, sometimes just a distraction (the scoring is never subtle), but frequently destroying the momentum of a genuinely affecting moment. The actors are top-notch, the cinematography and art direction a treat, the songs used in the background are ok....but the "feely-touchy" yuck enveloping you in Dolby Digital impedes any honest emotional involvement.

This is a very funny, very sad, verbally intoxicating challenge for four gifted screen actors who take you along through a domestic crisis caused by an untimely visit by a wife's college boyfriend and his current infatuation. It could have been called "The Fifty Dollar Misunderstanding". Only in the last few minutes of screen-time are the stage origins too obvious. I loved this movie.

Ignore the simple-minded James Bond comparisons, this film is classic Frankenheimer with many layers and mysteries being revealed to us as the story unfolds. Auto chases that seem to surpass both Bullitt and The French Connection and make the auto mayhem in The Rock look constructed in the editing room. This film has a stellar international cast, but there is no doubt that this is a director's movie that deserves to be called John Frankenheimer's Ronin.