Pretty Good

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Crappy film

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

John Hurt is "The Commissioner" in this 1998 drama.The film begins with a horrific suicide and then reverts to a heavy scene between the British prime minister and a high-ranking government official, James Morton, who is fired. The reasons are political, but we aren't really told why or what happened. The PM wants to use Morton's abilities, so he sends him to Brussels as Britain's European Commissioner, and he is promised that his role will be in Foreign Affairs. Instead, it's Industry. Morton doesn't want the job as he feels it's a true exile, but he goes. He basically leaves his wife (Alice Krige) behind. She's sick of his philandering and wants a divorce.In his job as Commissioner, Morton receives information about a huge German chemical company that is supposedly manufacturing nerve and biological weapons, and is about to merge with a British company. Everyone is all for the merger, but Morton delays it. He is given compelling documents from a former worker at the plant (Armin Mueller-Stahl). The investigation leads to some shocking information.John Hurt is one of the greatest actors to come out of the UK, and he could act the phone book and get an Oscar nomination. I really didn't feel this role was fitting for an actor of his caliber, though he is excellent. Mueller-Stahl is a real standout as well, and Rosana Pastor is beautiful and convincing.The problem is that we just don't find out enough about the characters and the back story, and in fact, the film ends and we really don't know how things are going to turn out for the most part.I expect more important things from John Hurt, whose work in The Naked Civil Servant and Elephant Man stand as two of the most brilliant performances of all time.

John Hurt is wasted in this German-English-Belgian low-budget, poorly produced drama/thriller. Hurt does his best, and the basic idea from the novel is sound, but this film is a failure in most respects (If you want an example of how this sort of thing MIGHT have been done, chase up the original English TV series of 'Edge of Darkness') For a start the production values are awful. It's sub-TV. In one scene a camera pans to the left, obviously bumps into something, wobbles, and the six producers and co-producers (not to mention editor, director) either didn't notice or didn't care. The sound, in some scenes, is filled with the sort of ambient noise you really don't want: noises which ought not be heard make their way in.Supporting actors are at best adequate; at worst painful.In theory it ought to work, given a budget, but it ends up a tiresome shambles. Without Hurt it would be unwatchable. Gods know why maybe the best male actor of the early-mid 80's was reduced to this sort of thing.

There are some interesting twists in the movie, so there was a lot of thought put into the plot. Unfortunately, the execution did not live up to the potential provided by the plot. Actually, the plot of the movie is just as pertinent today as it was 10+ years ago of corporations with ties to politicians being able to be above the law. However, the script, the dialog, the pace, and the acting all left a little to be desired. Even the performance of the distinguished John Hurt seemed average at best. This seemed more along the quality of a made-for-TV movie. The redeeming value of the movie was that it has the theme that one must do things for the right reason, but it was rather painful process to get there.

For me, this is one of those films that you start watching and half an hour later, wonder if you should watch or do something else. But I stuck with and found it "so-so" viewing. John Hurt played his role well as did Mueller-Stahl (he was great in "Shine"). The plot takes a few unexpected twists that I did not foresee. However, what disappointed me was the predictability of some parts of the story (e.g. the fate of some characters), the superficiality of some of the characters' interrelationships, and the generally cheap look and feel of the production. A pet hate was the stereotyped Texan businessman in a Stetson - also poorly acted. The movie lacked a certain flow and left some issues hanging unnecessarily. Anyway, see for yourself.