THE SAINT
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
When director Noyce undertook (sic!) this version of THE SAINT, he asked the writers, Jonathan Hensleigh and Wesley Strick, to include something about Simon Templar's early life, how he changed from a sinner to a saint, something the original writer of The Saint stories, Leslie Charteris, neglected to do. The movie therefore starts off in an orphanage in the Far East. There, young Simon refuses to reveal his identity to the orphanage's administrators. It was there he learned to use disguises, retreating from the real world.
Val Kilmer who plays the title role, gets to use a dozen or so disguises. Unfortunately, one would have to be blind not to recognize old Val under all the makeup. On the other hand, Kilmer appears to be well aware of that and he plays The Saint with a twinkling eye and a half grin. That is the good part of the film. The rest is downhill.
What does a nuclear scientist look like? What if she is a woman? The woman scientist may very well look like Dr. Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue) but we have all been conditioned to expect something less than a beautiful blonde. It therefore makes Ms. Shue an unbelievable scientist. That may be our fault but this being a movie, we want our scientists to look like what we expect a scientist to look like. Right? Right.
The plot can be disposed of very quickly. The movie takes place in present-day Russia. In a key supporting role, there is Ilya, (Valery Nikolaev) the violent and unpredictable son of a very influential industrialist Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serbedzjia.) The Saint is hired to get a valuable secret from Dr. Russell which will enable holding the world hostage. They did not reckon that The Saint would fall in love with Dr. Shue, thus putting a crimp in everyone's plans. Why they did not anticipate that, I cannot say. It certainly occurred to me.
Directed by Phillip Noyce.
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Ben Hoffman
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