Starring Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Gene Hackman, Sean Young, George Dzundza, Iman, Howard Duff

(6-Good Film)

Intriguing. Surprising. Preposterous.

Costner plays Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell, an officer working inside the Pentagon having a torrid affair with his boss’s mistress; his boss being Secretary of Defense (Hackman). A murder follows, and the plot gets plenty thick with Costner knowing what really happened but also in danger of being set up as the culprit himself. It’s a remake of a forties classic, itself adapted from a novel, though this version is awfully convoluted. That’s not a problem for most of the film, but there’s a twist at the end that threw me. On the one hand, it’s a truly shocking revelation that changes the whole film. On the other hand, did the film need that? Regardless, entertaining and engaging thriller.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(570)