After his ill-fated onscreen pairing with Harrison Ford in the humdrum The Devil's Own (1997), Brad Pitt may have wondered whether this older man-young buck thing could work for him. He can relax. Pitt, 37, and Robert Redford, 65, have chemistry to spare in Spy Game, a solid suspense thriller about the shifting relationship between two CIA agents over the years.
Redford is Nathan Muir, a 30-year veteran of the CIA. It's 1991, the Cold War is over, and Muir is about to retire. On almost his last day at the agency in Langley, Va., he learns that Tom Bishop (Pitt), a protégé he recruited and trained, has been captured by the Chinese and is to be executed in 24 hours. Bishop was involved in a rogue operation—he was trying to free a prisoner from a Chinese jail—so the CIA bigwigs are ready to cut him loose. Muir has other plans, despite having warned Bishop many years ago, "If you ever go off the reservation, I will not come after you."
Given current events, one would think Spy Game, which includes a scene in which a car bomb blows up a building, might be offputting, but it works surprisingly well. This is no jingoistic, mindlessly pro-American drama. In flashbacks set in Vietnam, Berlin and Beirut from 1975 to 1985, the film makes it amply clear that the deadly tasks Muir and Bishop are called upon to perform are never pretty and require constant moral compromises. The script also exhibits a shrewd grasp of the seismic shifts in culture at the CIA during that period, when by-the-book politicos replaced the cowboys. Director Tony Scott (Enemy of the State) adeptly stages Spy Game's action scenes and the tête-à-têtes between Redford and Pitt, in which their relationship evolves from teacher and pupil to sometimes clashing colleagues. Redford has the more fully written role here. Leathery but still radiantly blond, he is at his cagey, charming best, while the less-weathered Pitt shines brightest when his character comes out from under Muir's shadow. (R)
Bottom Line: They've got Game
Martin Lawrence, Marsha Thomason
Hollywood can go to the well only so many times before coming up dry, which is why it may be time to give Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court a rest. While already the source for at least four films and several TV movies, Twain's plot is also the uncredited inspiration for Black Knight, a comedy in which even the swords are dull. Knight tries to freshen up Twain by putting a hip-hop spin on the time-travel jokes, but the result is all bad.
Lawrence (Big Momma's House) plays Jamal, a worker at a medieval theme park who, after falling into a moat, surfaces in 14th-century England near a castle. In one of Knight's rare moments of cleverness, Jamal announces he's from Normandie (a street in L.A.), and the courtiers, hearing "Normandy," welcome him as an honored visitor. Director Gil Junger (10 Things I Hate About You) clearly made Knight on the cheap—the extras act and dress as if recruited from a weekend Renaissance fair. Lawrence merely talks trash and jumps around as if he has been given a hotfoot. (PG-13)
Bottom Line: Stinketh
Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, William Mapother
Featured attraction
Grief always has a beginning, but sometimes no end. That's true for middle-aged Matt and Ruth Fowler (Wilkinson and Spacek), whose hearts are forever broken when their only son (Stahl), a recent college, graduate, is fatally shot by the estranged husband of the older woman (Tomei) he is dating. With the killer (Mapother) roaming free on bail in their Maine town, Matt can't forget and Ruth can't forgive, and grief threatens to overwhelm their marriage.
Spacek and Wilkinson give near-perfect performances, and the rest of the cast is close behind. An impressively assured first film by director-writer Todd Field (a talented actor last seen in Eyes Wide Shut), this carefully observed albeit slow-paced drama cuts deep. (R)
Bottom Line: An acting triumph
For most of her adult life, says Helena Bonham Carter, she had a bad case of Peter Pan Syndrome. After all, she was 30 before she moved out of her parents' London home. That changed last May, when she turned 35. "I had 35-itis panic," says Bonham Carter, who plays a con artist who seduces a dentist (Steve Martin) in the comic thriller Novocaine. "All my friends are having babies, and I'm left behind. I feel more of an impulse to settle down."
First step: meeting Tim Burton, 43, who directed her in last summer's Planet of the Apes. They started dating in October after he broke up with his longtime girlfriend Lisa Marie, 33. It was hardly love at first sight, since in the film Bonham Carter wore a latex simian suit and huge false teeth. The actress's smile didn't win anyone over on the set of Novocaine either. To get into character, she arrived at the shoot wearing gnarly fake choppers. (She used more subtle dentures in the movie.) "I was not a fan of the funny teeth," says Martin. "They were frightening. Everybody started [singing], I Am the Walrus.' "
The Devil's Backbone An intriguing ghost story, with much more on its mind than just wrathful wraiths, is set in an orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. Spine-tingling and worth seeking out. Guillermo del Toro (Mimic) directed, and Marisa Paredes stars. (R)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Though special effects outweigh the magic, fans of J. K. Rowling's books, both big and small, will be thrilled by the wee wizard's onscreen antics in this exceedingly faithful adaptation. (PG)
Heist Eureka. David Mamet's first-rate thriller about a gang of thieves. Stars Gene Hackman and Danny DeVito. (R)
Monsters, Inc. Boo-tiful for kids. (G)
Tape High school pals (Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard) meet in a hotel room to grapple with their past. Crisp, comic and clever. (R)
The Wash Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre saunter through a dopey comedy. (R)
- Contributors:
- Elizabeth Leonard.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
