THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER Reviewed by Jamie Peck
An occasionally seedy, always adult-oriented agenda is announced the precise moment "Daughter"'s ball gets rolling, following an unnecessarily lengthy intro that allows viewers to meet and greet John Travolta in another sterling dramatic turn. He plays top warrant officer Paul Brenner, assigned by the army's Criminal Investigation Division to sort through some sticky business involving an arms buyer on a Georgia base. During his stay there, the general's daughter (Leslie Stefanson), a captain herself, turns up dead -- and naked, spread-eagle, tent-staked to the ground and apparently sexually assaulted. You can probably wager a guess as to whether or not this movie is your cup of tea already.
To help him look for leads, Brenner gets paired with a rape specialist (Madeleine Stowe) with whom he shares a romantic history. The resulting rekindled-relationship subplot takes up less time than initially suspected, but still feels tacked-on -- especially while rushing to a happy resolution over the closing credits. Perhaps it stems from a need to make sure viewers exit "The General's Daughter" reassured that the world ain't such a bad place after all, because the material that constitutes a majority of the preceding two hours certainly suggests the opposite. It's a monstrously depressing story, really.
Our protagonists' sleuthing unearths a slew of unsavory revelations from the victim's past, as well as many shady supporting types. James Woods clashes masterfully with Travolta as the deceased's enigmatic mentor, their scenes more explosive than those that contain actual firearms. Ex-"Mod Squad"-er Clarence Williams III is weird and sweaty as a colonel intensely loyal to his superiors. Even the notion that the girl's decorated father (James Cromwell) isn't beyond suspicion won't be news to fans of the twisty genre. But unsettling shocks are delivered in the ultimate disclosures of this supremely unusual parent-child bond -- and it's probably not what you're thinking.
Sure, "The General's Daughter" is messy in ways most thrillers are: logic holes, ill-used actors (here, the horribly underrated Timothy Hutton as a helpful MP) and a weak send-off that botches the actual perp's identity and motive. But the movie still resonates strongly, particularly the potent posthumous development of the title character and the solid acting from Travolta, Woods and Stowe. Stowe overcomes her female-tagalong role by commanding one of Daughter's most attention-capturing moments: her shrewd locker-room grilling of a cadet who's concealing important case-related secrets.
Director Simon West cut his teeth on 1997's "Con Air," a testosterone-heavy Simpson-Bruckheimer actioner, and brings similar stylized visuals to "The General's Daughter" -- meaning that chopper blades spin in glorious slow-motion and nary an edit lasts longer than 10 seconds. This odd choice pays off, making edgier scenes seem less exploitative. But why does West plop a statistic over the ending fade-to-black that estimates the number of women in the armed forces at an empowering high? Uh, if "Daughter" was supposed to inspire females to be all they can be, it needs major rewrite.
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