Cast: Russell Crowe, Meg Ryan, David Morse
Director: Taylor Hackford
Running time: 130 mins
Rating: R13 (violence, offensive language)
Screening: Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas
Review: Peter Calder
When Russell met Meg absolutely nothing happened, if this lacklustre kidnap thriller is any guide.
Unfair though it may seem, it's impossible in this celebrity-soaked age to ignore the echoes of the short-lived Crowe-Ryan liaison (they met on the Ecuador set) when assessing what ended up on film. The more recent rescue in Ecuador of New Zealander Dennis Corrin, not to mention the revelations of kidnap threats against our Russell, simply add spice to the mix.
The almost complete absence of chemistry between the two leads won't just frustrate the devotees of the gossip columns, it sinks the film as well. We may search for proof of life on screen, but we won't find it.
Crowe, reunited with his Australian accent, plays Terry Thorne, who specialises in negotiating the release of Westerners held to ransom by terrorists.
When Peter Bowman (Morse), an American engineer, is kidnapped by a ragtag army of drug-dealing extremists in the fictional South American country of Tecala, the insurers disclaim all responsibility. Thorne is recalled from the job but stays on for free - because he's taken a shine to Bowman's wife Alice (Ryan).
Well, so we are meant to believe, although precious little evidence of their nascent passion has survived the final cut. She looks frail and tearful and he juts his jaw and says things like "Trust me."
There's slow breathing and pained expressions, but no sense of Alice's torn loyalties emerges, largely because the only scene of the Bowmans together is a spiteful fight which hints at a long and bitter marriage, suggesting they've got nothing in the emotional bank to start with.
Director Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman) fails to invest the sole crucial plot twist with any sense of drama and though the film takes off when negotiations fail and Thorne mounts a rescue mission (many things explode, many gibbering terrorists die) it's all flat and predictable.
Proof of Life
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