A Fresh Second Look

I've sometimes heard people say of a movie or book, "oh, I wish I could see that again for the first time." Of course, they usually say this of something they love dearly. I recently had the closest thing to this experience I think one could actually have short of some sort of amnesia, when I sat down to watch the movie In the Line of Fire.

This is the movie starring Clint Eastwood as a Secret Service Agent trying to protect the current president, even as he broods over his past mistakes at JFK's assassination. John Malkovich is the killer after the Commander in Chief, and Rene Russo and Dylan McDermott appear as other agents working with our hero.

I was convinced I'd never seen this movie before. And it took until nearly the halfway point of the movie for me to finally have a moment of doubt... "hey, have I seen this before?" Only at the final climactic scene, set in the glass elevator of a fancy hotel, did the fog to finally lift -- "dammit, I have seen this movie before!"

Possibly this is a sign of me losing my mind or something. Instead, I choose to think that it's the fault of this being a thoroughly average movie. Oh, it's not bad; with this cast, how could it be? But it's an absolutely paint by numbers thriller. The killer taunts his hunter over the phone. He leaves cryptic clues. The hero is hot on his trail, but can't convince his co-workers to believe him. There's not a moment in this film that you haven't seen in several other films. In fact, it's all a bit more awkward here than it's been in other films. The motivations of the assassin are never remotely addressed. The closest we ever seem to get is that he's doing it because he's smart and capable enough to pull it off.

There's a completely unnecessary subplot in which Rene Russo plays the love interest for Clint Eastwood. It's handled in a sloppy way that makes you yearn to get back to the action, and on top of that it's a bit uncomfortable at times, thanks to the 24 year age difference between the two actors.

Any cat and mouse game that has John Malkovich as one of the players ought to be the height of excitement, but the material never really pops. It's never boring, but I for one was hoping for more.

Ultimately, I can see why the movie left so little an impression on me years ago that I ended up watching it again thinking it was for the first time. I'd rate it a C+. If you've never seen it before (or think you haven't), it's probably not worth your time.