Screenwriter Steve Tesich and film director Peter Yates, who first collaborated on "Breaking Away", reunite for this character driven, reasonably involving thriller. William Hurt stars as Daryll Deever, a night janitor with a fixation on TV news personality Toni Sokolow (Sigourney Weaver). So when a murder takes place in his building, he pretends to know more about it than he does in order to get close to her. She's initially just interested in him as a means to get a story, but does come to like him, while the person responsible for the killing decides to leave nothing to chance and to eliminate Daryll.
There are some bits in here that don't have too much to do with the main plot, but they do allow this well chosen cast some time to leave fairly big impressions. Kenneth McMillan has a touching scene, playing Darylls' father, and Hurt and Pamela Reed do well in another scene where their characters are completely honest about their relationship. James Woods is fun in a typically off kilter role as Darylls' friend who has suspect written all over him. Irene Worth and Albert Paulsen play Toni's parents, Christopher Plummer her impassioned boyfriend. And Steven Hill and Morgan Freeman have some good moments together as the detectives working the case.
There is an autobiographical quality to the script to a degree, as Tesich himself had had a thing for a Washington, D.C., anchorwoman, and would record her broadcasts and keep pictures of her as Daryll does regarding Toni in the film. It's well shot (by Matthew Leonetti) on various NYC locations and sets and slickly done, and all in all the movie does tell a pretty entertaining story with some standout sequences. One with a crazed dog, the opening with the camera prowling around a basement, a bit of action with Daryll and Toni fighting off some Vietnamese goons, and the finale in the stables come to mind. But it's really the actors who make this an okay viewing. It's worth noting that Weaver looks particularly beautiful here.
Seven out of 10.
There are some bits in here that don't have too much to do with the main plot, but they do allow this well chosen cast some time to leave fairly big impressions. Kenneth McMillan has a touching scene, playing Darylls' father, and Hurt and Pamela Reed do well in another scene where their characters are completely honest about their relationship. James Woods is fun in a typically off kilter role as Darylls' friend who has suspect written all over him. Irene Worth and Albert Paulsen play Toni's parents, Christopher Plummer her impassioned boyfriend. And Steven Hill and Morgan Freeman have some good moments together as the detectives working the case.
There is an autobiographical quality to the script to a degree, as Tesich himself had had a thing for a Washington, D.C., anchorwoman, and would record her broadcasts and keep pictures of her as Daryll does regarding Toni in the film. It's well shot (by Matthew Leonetti) on various NYC locations and sets and slickly done, and all in all the movie does tell a pretty entertaining story with some standout sequences. One with a crazed dog, the opening with the camera prowling around a basement, a bit of action with Daryll and Toni fighting off some Vietnamese goons, and the finale in the stables come to mind. But it's really the actors who make this an okay viewing. It's worth noting that Weaver looks particularly beautiful here.
Seven out of 10.