THE SAINT
RW
Directed by: Phillip Noyce
Written by: Leslie Charteris (the novels), Jonathan Hensleigh(also story) Wesley Strick.
Cast: Val Kilmer (Simon Templar) Elisabeth Shue (Dr. Emma Russell), Rade Serbedzija (Ivan Tretiak), Valeri Nikolayev (Ilya Tretiak)
Produced by: Paramount Pictures Corporation / Rysher Entertainment
Length: 116 mins
Rating: **** out of *****
Theatres: Everywhere
Val Kilmer has one of those faces you don't really pay attention to, and when he's in a lead role it's easier to remember him for the characters he plays rather than for how he played them.
THE SAINT changes this: Kilmer, unobstrusive to the point of dullness on his own, morphs fascinatingly into a myriad of characters, complete with varied mannerisms and accents, in the role of Simon Templar, the well-skilled thief-chameleon most well-known from the '60s television series of the same name. Where Roger Moore's Templar was a stylish, well-suited Bond type, though, the '90s Saint as rewritten by director Philip Noyce (PATRIOT GAMES) and Val Kilmer is a superbly wired contractor who hires out h is high-salaried services to the highest bidder. More Timberland than Cerruti, Kilmer wields an Apple 5300c, no less, and a Nokia handphone that turns out to be a sort of palmtop computer capable of sending out satellite transmitted messages; in lieu with a laconic tiredness that marks everything he does, this Templar just wants to break 50 million and then get out of the business forever.
This Templar, in fact, has A Past, which we are shown in the opening flashback saturated with obnoxiously emotional music. As an orphan in a rigid, Catholic orphanage, he refuses to acknowledge the name chosen for him by the Priests and all the boys are s ubsequently punished. He leads them in an escape attempt but in the resultant scuffle, Agnes, a sweet-faced girlfriend of sorts, falls to her death.
Years later, he has become Simon Templar: "Simon" for the magician character in the books he used to read as a child, and "Templar" for the Knights of the Crusade. He uses a number of aliases and disguises, and the former are all names of Patron Saints. " Who am I?" he questions, in front of the mirror, before donning his persona for the day.
He breaks into a the safe of Russion oil billionaire and election candidate Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serbedzija), narrowly escaping, with a target microchip, from a confrontation with Tretiak's son Ilya (Valeri Nikolayev). This incident spurs the Tretiaks to ge t even: they hire Templar to filch a ground-breaking formula for cold fusion, intending to kill him after he delivers it to them.
The cold fusion formula belongs to Dr. Emma Russell, who is played by an extremely unscientific-looking Elizabeth Shue. In a question-answer session with students and journalists she waxes lyrical about "helping mankind" with energy that is "all around us ." And although she's rendered cold fusion once before, she can't figure out the order of the steps to take to reproduce the experiment. Although Templar searches her apartment, he can't find the formula because she keeps them on bits of paper stuffed in her bra.
Templar's attempt to get the formulae involves seducing her as a sleazy-sensitive Dutch-African who writes dark poetry and poses insufferably, an act she actually falls for heavily. Templar gets the formula, but in the process -- yes -- they connect and p lans have to be changed.
While Russell works on perfecting her formula (which Tretiak's head Russian scientist cannot decipher himself because, according to him, it's too deceptively simple and goes against everything he has been taught), Templar works on keeping them both out of Tretiak's clutches, preventing the Russian president's usurpation and stopping a second major political revolution.
THE SAINT isn't a standard Hollywood movie: its plot is somewhat convoluted and things don't always add up. And although Kilmer carries off many characters -- from a bourgeoise Berliner to an oily, comb-overed journalist sporting bad teeth -- with wondrou s meticulousness, his Templar lacks a personality to call its own. Instead, there is a blandness to his hero that confirms a suspicion I've always had -- that Kilmer really does do Characters better than plain ol' leading man type roles. Or perhaps it's m ore that he does his parts so well that it's hard to see how good he actually is, and his leading man image suffers as a result.
THE SAINT is also reminiscent of generic Bond type movies in its claiming a link with modern science without bothering to show that it has the faintest idea of how it works. Ignoring present-day Hollywood's concern with realism, Elizabeth Shue's Emma Ruse ll, an Oxford-based scientist, eschews the technical jargon usually crammed down an audience's throat in favour of whimsical speeches on how cold fusion should be free for the world. She looks (and, in fact, *acts*) like she couldn't tell the difference b etween a test tube and a tube of lipstick.
Despite this, however, THE SAINT is refreshingly intricate and has a minimum number of gratuitous explosions (that is, it has explosions but I suppose these are all strictly necessary). Kilmer is a relief to watch on screen after the cocky posturing of yo u-know-who in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, Paramount's other big '60s TV remake last summer. Director Noyce, who also did CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER and DEAD CALM, weaves tight action with convincing romance, almost believable political espionage, villains that ar en't too overstated for the '90s and a neat happy ending. Really, what more could you ask for?
Conclusion: I think this movie is definitely worth all of its $7.
THE FLYING INKPOT's RATING SYSTEM:
* Wait for the video.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
Rebecca Wan wears her trousers rolled.Read other movie reviews at the Inkpot
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