D.O.A.
A film review by Shane R. Burridge
Copyright 1997 Shane R. Burridge
D.O.A. (1988) 96m.
Remake of 1950 thriller is snappily directed, features popular lead actors (Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan), and has a great premise, but is ultimately torpedoed by a misconceived script. Quaid is an English professor (and has-been writer) on a Texas campus who finds out that he has been fatally poisoned. With only 24 hours left to live he tries to find out who is responsible. While I thoroughly enjoyed this on first viewing, it doesn't hold up so well the second time around. Story, which belongs to the =91what would you do if the world was going to end in ten minutes=92 school of speculation, treads the path a number of us would no doubt choose - what Quaid wants is answers. What drives D.O.A. is the notion that fear of death can be taken to a further stage - the fear of dying without meaning or reason. In fact Quaid is more preoccupied with solving the mystery behind his imminent death than the physical act of dying itself.
The most puzzling thing for Quaid (and the audience) is the crime=92s motive. There is no apparent reason why anyone should want to kill him. This intriguing element is one of the best things the film has going for it until the denoument, which is so absurd it undermines the whole premise. Worse, it trivializes Quaid=92s death. There are other glitches, most obviously that by the time the bodies start piling up (and there=92s way too many for such a weak motive) there=92s not a lot of suspects left over to pick the murderer from. There=92s also a convoluted exposition scene with Charlotte Rampling that for all purposes is irrelevant to the main story. Nor am I convinced about the neccessity for Meg Ryan=92s character. Her brief interlude with Quaid supposedly reminds him of the quality of life that he has let slip by - but does anybody really need this just before they=92re about to die? On a purely filmic level, however, the film succeeds, and there are enough inventive moments to make it interesting. A promising cinema debut for Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton - with all its plot holes it might have been a good idea for them to push style over content even further.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews