Starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt, Michael Murphy, Bill Kerr, Noel Ferrier

(8-Exceptional Film)

Thoughtful. Passionate. Expert.

Despite its romantic potboiler premise and  poster, this movie is handled with subtlety and thoughtfulness, as all the director Peter Weir’s films are. Mel Gibson plays an Australian journalist stationed in Jakarta during the 1960s civil unrest, eager to break a big story-maybe even at the expense of everything and everyone else. Linda Hunt won an Oscar for her performance as Billy Kwan, the diminutive guide and photographer working with Gibson, who essentially becomes the film’s hero. Sigourney Weaver plays Gibson’s British love interest. It’s a quietly stunning film.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(349)