in the line of fire

'in the line of fire' is about as straight-down-the-line formulaic a film as you'll find. but in keeping with the premise of this unfortunately irregular blog, i'd best mention certain things that, in pop-critical parlance, take this from being a 2 & a half star action flick to a 4 (i despise the gutlessness of a 2 & a half star review, by the way, so commonplace in newspaper reviews - critics need to tear stuff apart, not sit on the starry fence).

i love an action/drama flick that uses establishing shots of the big washington monuments as kind of visual/thematic bedrock (why do you think i've watched 'jfk' four billion times? kevin costner strolling sternly in front of lincoln's statue - i'm happy). 'in the line of fire' doesn't muck around, rushing through its opening credits with the aid of an equally rushed score (no frills, this film - the score is completely forgettable), & planting its title, in the blandest font imaginable, across the traditional head-on view of the whitehouse.

'ok, that'll do', the director seems to say - 'let's get these characters established!'. first scene, therefore, is your usual cop-movie fare: heroic but troubled lead in full-flight, killing a few counterfeiters & arresting a ringleader, saving his wide-eyed partner's life etc. the role of the wide-eyed one is taken by dylan mcdermott, who plays it well enough - wife, kids, new recruit, nervous (unnecessary tears) = destined to die. inevitable death of partner (i can still hear it now; whenever these innocent types died in action films, my mum would always say, 'oh no! he was such a nice man!) is what tips gruff lead over the edge. character antecedents = holly hunter's love interest in 'copycat', jeff daniels in 'speed' etc.

'gruff lead' is what clint eastwood does best, though, & the writer knew this. i like certain of his lines - 'i gotta put all that shit back on!', after stripping down his white-collar-copper-clobber before abandoned sex - & his nice impatience with our brilliant villain's rhetoric - 'how much longer do i need to listen to this shit?'. what eastwood does really well (in his old age) is constantly contradict his diminishing physicality with a fierce, short-of-words streak that's always surprising. & the initially weird relationship with rene russo (where is she, by the way?) is saved by some quite nice writing - again, the surprise factor is important; for such a tawdry, cliched-lonely-spirit-swilling-detective character, his genuine interest in russo is refreshing, his romanticism kind of sparse, don't-expect-much & unexpected at the same time. sitting in front of the lincoln statue, he pines, 'if she turns around, she's interested...come on, turn around'. this romantic-glance motif carries through nicely into their piano-side love scene - the whole matter is rather pleasant, actually. & what's more (& this may sound, what, boyish?) the love-stuff doesn't ever interfere with the action side of things, as often happens in an action-drama - new couple have fight over hero's priorities, eventual reconciliation, sunset prioritisation etc.

that's all well & good. obviously the real feature of this film is john malkovich as our crazed but rhetorically controlled, nihilistic villain. he relates to eastwood (over the phone) in regards their mutual abjectness; malkovich as renegade CIA operative, eastwood as failed secret service agent (the 'failed to protect kennedy' theme is a bit jarring, i must say). & i guess the thing that separates the two men is russo; having found someone to brighten up the abjectness in his day, someone to, errrm, live for, we get that nice little postscript scene - russo & eastwood quietly walking out of the detective's desolate, dreary apartment as malkovich's voice prattles away on the answering machine - the ghost-voice of the villain now haunting the former haunt of the formerly nihilistic, deadpan detective. this last scene is a nice effort at character-thematics - again, it's something that takes this film over the 2 & a half star barrier. & it's bought off because of decent performers. watch this film if you haven't.