The Assignment
Directed by Christian Duguay
Written by Dan Gordon and Sabi H. Shabtai
Starring Adian Quinn, Donald Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, and Claudia Ferri
As Reviewed by James Brundage
This is either a new high or a new low. Never before have I seen a movie one night at 2:10 and reviewed it the next night at 11:49, albeit aided by a massive overdose of caffeine. This could be viewed as one of two things: a new level of obsessive behavior putting me right up there with Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction for a textbook example of crazy, or, the more pleasant alternative, a new level of commitment to my job combined with a chronic case of insomnia.
I think its A, but you be the judge.
The movie I watched from 2:10 AM to 4:05 AM was The Assignment, one of two movies that dealt with "The Jackal" in one way or another that came out in 1997. Although I don't especially think that I would have slept anyway, The Assignment is not worth losing sleep over.
Yes, it is enjoyable, and yes, it is intelligent, but, for all of us who have grown up with James Bond movies and Tom Clancy novels bringing in millions (not to mention the endgame of the Cold War, in which intelligence was the only thing actively fighting), it is the same old same old.
The plot of The Assignment is that you have a terrorist for hire named Carlos (Aidan Quinn) who is on the run from every government in the world except the Russians and the Libyans. Among the people who have an especially good reason to kill him are Henry Fields (aka Jack Shaw) (Donald Sutherland), who was there at one of his attacks in Paris and a Mosad agent named Amos (Ben Kingsley) who has absolutely no character motivation whatsoever.
Tricked into helping them is Lt. Cmd. Ramirez (Aidan Quinn), an exact look alike of Carlos with a nuclear family living in Virginia. Ramirez is such a very memorable character that someone told the imdb that his first name is Annibal, which is, in fact, the first name of his wife (Claudia Ferri). As for correcting it, I don't remember his name, either. The characters seem to be pulled out of a damp storage room from back when espionage films were chic.
The plot is basically idiotic. The cinematography is impressive for an espionage film, and we have a lot of fun watching Ramirez be trained to become a super-spy.
But the whole thing reeks of the stingy old films of the Cold War. I was under the impression -and perhaps I am mistaken in this aspect - that the Cold War was over and that we didn't have to put up with a punch of stock-character enemies in parkas and fur hats being shot perfectly by American idiots.
The thing about The Assignment that you must understand, however, is that, despite all of the above detriments to its cinematic value, it still ends up being fun. Nowadays James Bond does nothing by cavort and crack jokes, and the plots are all hackneyed and stupid.
They may have all been that way, but ever since Pierce Brosnan got in on the game, they stopped being so much damn fun. Tom Clancy, in his effort to stay up to date, has become terribly essayistic in his novels and in their adaptations. I mean, come on, how came out of Clear and Present Danger wanting to purchase drugs just to spit in their face? Well, me neither, but you get the point.
The espionage genre took a massive turn for the worse after the Cold War ended, and, despite the fact that we're back to square one where a super agent man is slipping past customs in perfect disguises and getting the Russians angry, it is still much better than the very unenjoyable modern day espionage films.
I'm in a quandary. On one hand, I try to recommend good films to you. The Assignment is not a good film. On the other hand, I try to recommend enjoyable films to you. The Assignment is enjoyable. It is up to you where to go from here.
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