Someone to Watch Over Me

How has Tom Berenger slipped out of the view of Hollywood? This man is a real talent, who conveys the confusion and pathos of an untenable situation with passion, conviction and realism.

Scott makes the tension palpable, and the supporting cast is so well rounded that IMHO it makes one of the best ever cinematic experiences. Mimi Rogers puts in a credible performance as a tortured socialite and the thrill of the chase makes for some startling and real scenes which keep you on the edge of your seat. If you want great entertainment without the hugest cerebral challenge (!) this is a fab way to spend an evening.

Someone to Watch Over Me is one of the greatest cop films of the eighties. It will never be fully appreciated nowadays, in which just action scenes, and not story, count. Ridley Scott brings back to the screens all the glamour of the noir films of the forties. Although Platoon is still Tom Berenger's best movie, Someone to Watch Over Me comes in second place. The plot is a little bit predictable, but Ridley Scott does such a great job and adds so much style to the film that we can forget the fails in the story and the cliches. It's about a cop from Brooklin (Berenger) who has to protect the life of a beautiful socialite, witness of a murder. They end up falling in love. The visual aspects of Someone to Watch Over Me - visual is a trademark of all Scott's films - are powerful and impressive, for the first time Scott showed the world of the rich and famous in a way never seen before. Ridley Scott told that he wanted to make Someone to Watch Over Me in the tradition of John Garfield's old noir films, and with the help of director of photography John Poster, his cameras deliver to us a bright, beautiful, sometimes menacing New York. The opening scene of the film, Sting singing Someone to Watch Over Me and the camera showing to all of us the lights of New York is one of the key moments of the movie. Someone to Watch Over Me stands to this day as a nice entertainment, and it certainly is one of the most compelling cop thrillers of the eighties, alongside Sharky's Machine, starred by Burt Reynolds.

Brooklyn Detective Tom Berenger is assigned to watch over socialite Mimi Rogers after she witnesses a brutal murder where a high profile Mafioso is involved. Berenger gets caught between two worlds; the upper class one he takes a liking to and the normal one (with a wife and kid) in the slums of Queens which he seems to be tiring of.

Highly stylish drama/thriller courtesy of Ridley Scott, who directs with his usual visual flair and examines the world of the wealthy seen through the eyes of a middle class voyeur and mixes in some solid suspense to boot. The drama aspect is well handled, pitting Berenger in a dire situation where he must ultimately choose between a life he's already made for himself and a life that can seem very tempting from his perspective.

Suspense is also plenty with some fantastic sequences, particularly one inside Mimi Rogers' apartment, not too unlike Dario Argento's Opera in some respects (and even beat it by a year, I think).

Tom Berenger does well in the lead, displaying easily the conflicts his character is facing, Rogers is a stunner and gives a subdued and convincing performance. The usually intolerable Lorraine Bracco gives a forceful performance, and one the whole her relationship with Berenger is not only well played out but wholly believable.

Recommended.

I came across this one while looking up Ridley Scott's movies, and this one looked like one of his weaker ones, so I didnt expect much, but I was surprised. The action was great, the music was cool, and the actors had great chemestry, Lorraine Bracco gave the best performance. After seeing this, I think this is one of Ridley Scott's better movies, the ones that were supposed to be his best(Blade Runner and Gladiator) bored the hell out of me. If you like a good action/thriller, give this one a try. 8.5 out of 10.

A highly stylized crime thriller that also manages to work as a tale of adulterous romance in addition to an effective parable of the culture clashes that are apparent between the upper and lower classes. This is a film with multiple agendas, and Ridley Scott, best known at the time for 1979's ALIEN and 1982's BLADE RUNNER, is frankly an odd choice to direct such a picture. However, Scott proves himself to be up to the challenge, and film plays like a slightly abstract dream that isn't afraid to crash down into gritty realism on occasion. With his film noir skills perfected with BLADE RUNNER, Scott turns the focus from the future to an equally idealized version of the present (well, 1987 to be exact), but he maintains the same sense of visual menace and harsh industrialism.

Tom Berenger has received a considerable amount of criticism for the irritating fake Brooklyn accent he delivers his lines in, but I overall I found him to be quite acceptable in the role. Even better is Mimi Rogers, who convincingly portrays the detached loneliness of the high society lifestyle without the benefit of screen dialogue that permits her to openly address such an issue. Jerry Orbach and John Rubinstein are also memorable supporting parts, but it is Lorraine Bracco who steals the picture as Berenger's feisty wife. Long before she was best known as Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Bracco brought to the screen the ultimate portrayal of the modern wife and mother - loving but fierce, tough but compassionate, and not afraid to slap some sense into the man who has done her wrong.

And I love Sting's opening rendition of the title Gershwin classic.