TWILIGHT
Newman plays Harry Ross, old friend of former Hollywood stars Jack and
Catherine Ames (Hackman, Sarandon), a married couple who are fully aware
of Harry's tender feelings toward Catherine. He's a former private investigator
who has retired and seems to be working as a sort of errand boy and jack-of-all-trades
for the wealthy couple. This is an appallingly menial position for his character,
but perhaps he is doing it just to be close to Catherine, who enjoys a continuous
cruel flirtation with him. When he's not fixing their dryer or lighting
one of Catherine's numerous cigarettes, he's playing gin rummy with Jack.
When Harry attempts to deliver a message from Jack to a certain woman,
he gets beaten to a pulp and left for dead, and this naturally makes him
curious. So he decides to make a hobby of his old profession and check out
the situation. This leads him into an extremely tangled web of intrigue
involving his former partner, Verna (Stockard Channing), another old friend
on the force, Raymond Hope (James Garner), and a couple of blackmailers
(Margo Martindale, Liev Schreiber) who turn out to be more friendly than
his friends.
Although this could be an interesting story, the performances are so
low-key that they fail to illicit any significant rise of tension. Newman
plays the entire movie as if he just woke up and hasn't had his morning
coffee. He's supposed to be an alcoholic, but he doesn't drink any more
than anyone else. Sarandon is so busy lighting cigarettes (big tobacco has
scored again, obviously) that she fails at her only assignment: to be sexy.
And Hackman's character isn't explored enough by the script to have him
do much more than boss Harry around. The expository dialogue is so transparent
that we feel we are being led by the hand. Surprisingly, the better performances
here are by non-principals Martindale and Schreiber, who seem to have a
lot more blood flowing through (and ultimately out of) their veins.
If this movie were cast with no-name actors or even rising stars, it would only be boring and undistinguished. But with a bill full of high-powered names like these, it's a downright disappointment. ***