Le consul honoraire

In Argentina, Dr. Eduardo Plarr (Richard Gere) is a medical doctor with a Paraguayan deceased mother and an English revolutionary father that is imprisoned in Paraguay. He unsuccessfully tries to get news about his father with his acquaintance Colonel Perez (Bob Hoskins). One night, he is summoned to attend the alcoholic British Honorary Consul Charley Fortnum (Michael Caine) in a brothel where he sees a beautiful young prostitute but she goes with another man. When he returns to the Whitehouse, he learns that the prostitute Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) left the place. One day, Charley calls him to examine his wife, and when Eduard turns the light of the room on, he sees that Charley married Clara. Soon he meets her in a store and buys an expensive sunglass to her. Clara goes with him to his apartment and they begin a love affair. When Clara becomes pregnant, Charley believes that the baby is his. Meanwhile Eduardo's childhood friend Leon (Joaquim De Almeida) visits him in his office and tells that his father is alive in Paraguay. Further, he tells that he plans to abduct the American ambassador and exchange him per political prisoners in Paraguay including his father. However he needs inside information about the visit of the ambassador. What will Eduardo do?

"The Honorary Consul" is a dramatic thriller with romance that does not work well. Eduardo is an unethical doctor and amoral man. His relationship with Clara is cold and he betrays Charley with a great cynicism. The film does not work well and the conclusion is predictable. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Cônsul Honorário" ("The Honorary Consul")

Competent adaptation of a typical Graham Greene story, a tale of dilemma, forgiveness and redemption in a quasi-fascist South America. Direction and acting are both ordinary, though Michael Caine and Richard Gere are at least well cast; Bob Hoskins (an Argentinian policeman!) less so. Always interesting, but strangely subdued: Greene packs a greater moral punch on the page.

It was difficult to watch this film because of the miscasting of Richard Gere who seems at last partially anesthesthetized through the entire movie. There is not one bit of passion in his manner or his speech and, whenever he is on the screen, there is a hole through which all tension drains. Bob Hoskins is not a convincing Latin at all, neither in accent nor in manner. Better casting in these two parts would have improved this film immeasurably.

An interesting, semi-error shows many of the main characters sweating through their shirts. In tropic and sub-tropic regions, locals have heat adapted well enough so that they sweat almost unnoticeably in normal conditions and thus can appear crisp and unruffled in temperatures where those of us from more temperate climates sweat like water buffalo.

Believe this, I have watched this so many times, but in part. I could spout off lines in Christopher Hampton's script, at the click of a finger. I love the settings for this movie in which Gere, an English spoken doctor, falls for a newly married young woman, Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) who is earlier seen as the whore working at this seedy bar that doubles as a cat house. She's married to the honorary Consul (Caine) unaware of the affair that has sparked between friend and wife. At the start, Gere, just arriving in town, helps another guy escort a drunk Caine from one bar to infamous cat house one. It's here he sets eyes on Clara. The sex scenes are quite hot as passions run high, but Gere has trouble from the other side, involving his past, where two old friends, (one a much younger Joquian Almedia) approach him, with a kidnapping plot to snatch a consul, in return for their fellow South American prisoners to be released. Only problem is, they snatch Caine instead, not a real consul, an honorary consul. Gere, maddened by the idiocy of the mates, remains loyal. Gere's father too, is one of those prisoners, as Gere is innocently led to believe. Caine's actor mate, Bob Hoskins, plays a cop, trying to help Gere track down his old man. One scene has Gere going off at him, when they arrest 250 mentally unsound people under his care and put them temporarily in prison, but Hoskins mellows him. Gere's fate at the end of the this, where the strong arm of the law closes in, was tragic, I must say. His not so badly portrayed doctor, is a sympathetic, goodhearted and likable character. But the heavyweights are Caine, who plays drunk so good and being funny too about it, where no nonsense Hoskins is solid. Elpidia is just pretty scenery really. But really there's something too brief about whole affair of the story here, despite it's good screenplay, and really it's just a passable, but involving drama + those couple of sex scenes. And near it's end too, some of the scenes are quite dark, they disjoint the action. But Gere too is a bit of a bastard in the bedroom, paying the now married Clara cash for her services as if she was still working. Also when going up to Gere's apartment, is her first tome, riding in an elevator. I liked the way Gere wore his jealousy well too, really at the sheer fact, Caine loves her. There's a lot of good scenes to find in the movie and Paul's McCartney's Brazilian intro theme was just beautiful and melodic, as it was soothing. For Gere fans, do put this different and quite enjoyable one one on your list.

Richard Gere plays Dr. Eduardo Plarr, an Anglo-Paraguayan doctor who unwittingly gets entangled in the kidnapping plot of an American consul by a novice group of Paraguayan rebels in exchange for ten of their imprisoned comrades. The plan goes awry as the rebels mistakenly kidnap his new friend instead - Charley Fortnum (Michael Caine), a British honorary consul who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Complicating the matter, the doctor falls head over heels in love with Charley's young wife, Clara (Elpidia Carrillo) - an ex-prostitute who has the same feelings toward him. Meanwhile, the police have tracked down the rebels hide-out and are closing in. With his life at stake, Plarr is forced to decide between betraying his love or friendship.

Sounds interesting, right? Sadly, it is not. The main problem is that the characters are not likable. Gere's character is a doctor who lusts after his friend's wife. Caine's is a heavy drinker who often creates problems than solves them while Carrillo's is a fickle-minded woman who can't decide who is best for her life.

The title itself "The Honorary Consul" does not fit into the main plot, which is more about Gere's character than Caine's. Even less fitting is the alternate US title "Beyond the Limit".

This is one of three John Mackenzie's films that I have watched and also the most unconvincing because of its tepid performances, contrived plot and ending, and lackluster direction. Only for Gere's or Caine's die-hard fans.