Keeping Track

My review was written in June 1987 after watching the movie on Charter Entertainment video cassette.

Robin Spry's "Keeping Track" ia a fast-paced, engrossing little thriller, head and shoulders above comparable pictures being made recently. Benefiting from the comfortable teaming of Margot Kidder and Michael Sarrazin, pic is a treat, though relegated to the now-standard limited theatrical release ahead of home video distribution.

Sarrazin portrays a cocksure Montreal tv anchorman thrust into an adventure straight out of "The 39 Steps" wen he and banking analyst Kidder witness a murdr on a train headed for New York. Soon not only the killers are after them but also the bank, police and government. Sarrazin is determined to get to the bottom of the matter but it is being covered up due to national security implications, as the KGB is involved with stealing U. S. technology. Film's McGuffin is a computer chip that will create a cyborg with artificial intelligence and possibly upset the balance of power depending upon who gets possession of it.

Spry and his writer-co producer Jamie Brown maintain a breathless pace, with the usual mechanical transition footage and extraneous filler left out of an action picture for a change. The stars, particularly Kidder in a followup to her Disney "Trenchcoat" sort of role, are bright and breezy and tech credits are solid down the line.

Margot Kidder and Michael Sarrazin give fine performances as innocent bystanders who become investigators, caught up in a robbery and murder with international implications. Margot is great from the start. Sarrazin starts off cartoon-like but quickly grows into the role of an expert investigative journalist who becomes part of the story he is investigating.

The plot is fine thriller material too, but unfortunately, the film covers too much too quickly and as a result is deeply flawed. It's as if a fine four hour thriller was chopped in writing or in editing to fit in an hour or so, leaving nothing but the clichés of the medium. There is nothing that Kidder can do to save this chop job of a film.