Saturday, March 29, 2008
In the Line of Fire
***** In the Line of Fire. Drama.
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Rene Russo, John Malkovich
I watched this video while exercising.
Frank Horrigan (Clint Eastwood) has the distinction of being the only active Secret Service agent to ever lose a President--he was there, on duty, when JFK was killed. Now someone (John Malkovich) is after the current President, and he's turned it into a game between himself and Frank, and Frank returns to directly protecting the President (he'd been chasing counterfeiters at the beginning of the movie) because "Booth" has made it personal.
Except that Frank is a little old to be running alongside limos, and the President is in the middle of a reelection campaign and the press secretary thinks Frank's alarmist tendencies are hurting his chances. Frank's main ally is Agent Lilly Raines (Rene Russo), with whom he gradually develops a romantic relationship, but even she thinks he's going too far.
This is just an excellent movie. I'm not in general a huge fan of Clint Eastwood--not liking westerns in general--but he's just perfect as the aging agent who has one last chance to get it right. Rene Russo as well is great as a rare female agent, and I very much enjoyed the way her character was portrayed--strong, tough, and smart without having a big chip on her shoulder, being tougher than the guys, or being a wimpy token female. The romance between the two built slowly and was understandable and believable.
But most impressive was John Malkovich's portrayal of ex-CIA-assassin Mitch Leary. He was seriously creepy, utterly ruthless, and yet he was a chameleon who could be any role his plan demanded. This was one of those movies that worked great for exercising to, because I'd get so engrossed in it that I'd forget that all those crunches were killing me.
Categories: Movies, 5stars, Drama
Labels: 5 stars, drama, Movies
