THE DEVIL'S OWN
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1997 Michael John Legeros
(Columbia)
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Written by David Aaron Cohen, Vincent Patrick, Kevin Jarre, based
on a story by Kevin Jarre
Cast Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Margaret Colin, Ruben Blades,
Treat Williams, George Hearn, Natascha McElhone
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence and profanity)
Running Time 111 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(26MAR97)
==
Frankly speaking, any $90M movie starring Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford should be more exciting than this one. Whatever the Hell the title means, the plot is deceptively simple: an Irish terrorist (Pitt) takes refuge in New York City and moves into the basement of an unsuspecting beat cop (Ford) and his family. And then the latter finds out about the former. To the credit of director Alan J. Pakula and however many writers went without mention, this movie doesn't take the easy way out. The hoary cliches are kept to a minimum, the violence is terse and to the point, and each character is given a fair amount of breathing room. So, what's the problem? Well, it just ain't exciting enough. THE DEVIL'S OWN never reaches the emotional heights suggested by either the story *or* the star power. Sure, there's some suspense. And an in- triguing moral conflict. And the slight pleasure of seeing Indiana Jones as the father of three girls. But when we get down to brass tacks, and the characters have to confront each other, there's just not enough punch to their punches.
Grade: B
--
Mike Legeros - Movie Hell legeros@pagesz.net - http://www.n-vision.com/hell/
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