Double Identity

Val Kilmer, looking nice and swank, heavier... but I still miss the old days when he played roles like the Saint. Then, we saw a much sharper, expressive, and exciting Kilmer. In this movie, Kilmer plays a doctor who becomes mistaken for a secret agent/diamond dealer, with the usual nefarious consequences. The story does try to keep you interested till the very end, but I felt Kilmer was a bit of a letdown.

The movie takes place in Bulgaria, not Chechenya, and from there, moves to Prague. Most of the supporting actors seem to be slavic, but they all acted well. I could find no fault there. The girl, Katrine (Izabella Miko) is beautiful and acted well too.

The main plot is not about saving anyone mysterious, nor protecting her from assailants. The girl is a secret double agent, working both for a British group seeking to control a diamond cartel, and the Bulgarian/Czech people who also want control of the same. The girl bumps into Kilmer, while running from being captured taking pictures for the Brits, kiss to make believe it was intentional to shake them off, and that begins a love affair, so strong, both were willing to risk their lives for the other. Whether or not you believe this is highly improbable depends on your definition of the word, but that is the plot, in a nutshell.

This is not to say that the movie is just a frivolous jamboree of hastily made-up story lines. No, it was OK, considering the story is nothing new, and similar plots have been used many times before. It would be a mistake to compare this movie with older ones of similar ideas, such as 007 Diamonds Are Forever. Such movies were a tour de force. It would be an injustice to make such comparisons, so the best thing to do, I guess, is just to take this one as a standalone, and judge it by its own merit. Doing so, it is not a shining accomplishment, but neither does it fail miserably.

So, bottom line: "will I like it?" If you like this kind of plot, it will keep you interested, but you'll have to follow the story carefully to avoid becoming confused. I know I did until I started doing some facial recognition. Despite the blasé storyline, it's not a bad waste of time.

It doesn't seem that long ago that Val Kilmer was a big star appearing in major Hollywood movies - it's kind of sad to see that just about all of his recent work has been for the straight-to-DVD market. And in these films (and this one), he appears to have put on some weight, looking somewhat puffy and tired. Actually, aside from that, he doesn't have much to be ashamed about for this particular straight-to-DVD movie. It has its faults - the story is set in 1992 for no apparent reason, Kilmer's character is not properly introduced, and for a thriller, the movie is surprisingly calm - it could have used with a bit more juice in its narrative and a few exciting action scenes. Still, the movie is professionally filmed, a trademark of Millennium Films/Nu Image, and it's nice to see one of their shot-in-Bulgaria movies actually set in Bulgaria! And while the movie could have been more engaging, it does manage to set up a mystery that keeps you watching - there's never a time I could consider anywhere near boring. No, don't seek it out, but if it comes on TV during a slow day, you could do worse.

Since Val Kilmer died I've been scheduling a personal "Val Kilmer retrospective season" for myself. I never paid that much attention to his work when he was alive so this was a new one for me.

Many people have commented on his variability as an actor, great in some things, not so much in others, but for me it basically comes down to the type of actor he was, rather than any differences in his level of performance. To me, despite his highly rated looks when he was young, he is essentially a character actor, not a star. Val was always at his best playing a character who was someone else, rather than "himself". By that I mean he was at his best when he played Doc Holliday or Jim Morrison, rather than as a protagonist who was basically "Val Kilmer" in a situation.

To illustrate the difference I will site Jack Nicholson, who is considered to be a great actor and yet also almost always plays "Jack" on some level. He won Oscars for "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", "Terms Of Endearment" and "As Good As It Gets" but in all those performances he was still very "Jack". In Batman he played "Jack" as the Joker, in "A Few Good Men" he played "Jack" the colonel. Whereas Val was never a charisma based performer, he's more like a Meryl Streep, more comfortable burying himself inside a role, rather than being himself in a role.

So, onward to "Double Identity", which is from Kilmer's post peak, career decline, DTV "Fat Val" period. Yes, it's noticeable that Val has developed a paunch and that every time you see him he appears to be doing up the front button on his suit. Like Steven Segal in his "Fat Steven" period, Val sports a beard, to disguise his double chin, and wears a jacket of some sort at all times, to camouflage his bulging belly.

However I disagree with those who say his acting in this is tired or bored, I think his acting is fine and flows as easily and naturally as ever, it's just that Val doesn't have the natural charisma to excel in this sort of role. He was better suited to "The Saint" because they worked that story in such a way as to allow him to don a series of disguises and play roles other that of the Saint as himself, however that film failed due to the plot becoming too complicated at the expense of the action elements and had an unsatisfying ending, in which the Saint did not get to administer personal justice to the villains, who are merely arrested, rather than having their asses kicked and or being despatched to hell by the hero, as is expected.

This film also has a tendency toward over complication (or confusion, depending on your mood) and the action could have been more spectacular, however, given the limited budget it would have had, overall I find it to be one of those DTV films which punches well above its weight. In most ways it's a very competent production and I recommend it to those who enjoy the espionage genre and particularly those who are fans of Val himself, as this is one of his best late period efforts, possibly his last decent starring role.

The plot of the film is a variation on "North By North West" with Val as a civilian doctor who is mistaken for a secret agent involved in some sort of diamond dealing scenario. An Eastern European gangster wants to broker a new partnership between an ex-Soviet Republic, who mine diamonds, and a Western European distributor, which will cut out the existing International Diamond Cartel and break their monopoly.

A group who appear to be the British Secret Service (lead by Julian Wadham) have an agent on the inside (played by Isabella Miko, who is spectacularly beautiful in a way reminiscent of Michelle Pfeifer) and have been disseminating false information about an imaginary super-agent called "John Charter", in order to distract the gangsters from discovering the identity of their real operative. When a coincidental series of circumstances lead the gangster to mistakenly suspect Val of being Charter, the Secret Service decide to lean into it and do what they can to encourage that delusion, which puts Val in danger of being eliminated. Lots of following and chasing and catching and escaping ensues, which can become hard to follow at times.

Isabella's initial chance encounter with Val sets the ball rolling, then, after a while, she begins to sympathise with his plight, as an unwitting target, and starts to help him try to avoid this fate. Of course they fall in love in short order, a relationship which is unconvincingly developed, but that is not unusual in films of this type so we can let it pass.

Later there is a significant shift in perspective. The supposed British Secret Service guys (which is how they wanted Val to view them, in order to make him more receptive and compliant with their plans to use him as a "Judas goat") actually turn out to be operatives working for the Diamond Cartel, out to prevent the deal and preserve the monopoly.

It also seems that Isabella may have a caper of her own on the go, to heist the money involved for herself. It's never made clear exactly why Isabella is working with the Secret Service / Cartel group, is she just an independent contractor they have hired? Do they have something on her to force her to do their bidding? Or does she have some personal motive for revenge on the gangster? The relationship between her and Julian Wadham is always slightly antagonistic, with underlying tension and thinly veiled threats, but is never explained. She has friends / allies outside of Julian's group who assist her to help Val and later pursue her personal agenda.

Parts of the climax don't necessarily make a lot of sense, but there is plenty of shoot'em up action, so we can let it pass.

Sophia in Bulgaria is the location and its landmark buildings are well utilised by the director

All in all I rate it one of the better DTV movies.

The plot is silly, one hurried kiss and the two main characters have fallen so deeply in love they will risk their lives for each other.

The acting is OK, Kilmer plays an over-weight doctor well, you can really believe he is struggling gamely to run and out of breath! The rest of the cast are OK.

The story is a mess, none of it makes sense.

The dialogue is poor.

The ending is almost comical it is so ridiculous.

This isn't a good film but if you can switch your brain off you can watch it.

The only reason to watch this movie is if you are a Val Kilmer fan, otherwise its pretty forgettable.

It tries too hard to be clever but ends up spinning you around so much you just lose interest.