Sketch Artist

"Jack Whitfield" (Jeff Fahey) is a sketch artist who works for the Los Angeles Police Department and has been instructed to draw the image of a possible murder suspect as described by a witness named "Daisy" (Drew Barrymore). To his horror he then draws a picture of his wife, "Rayanne Whitfield" (Sean Young). Not wanting to implicate her he hurriedly draws another picture of a person he had just met named "Claire" (Stacy Haiduk) and presents it to his boss, "Tonelli" (James Tolkan). A little later Daisy is killed and Jack becomes a murder suspect as well. Now, rather than reveal any more of this film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that although some scenes were a bit unrealistic I still enjoyed it for the most part. I liked the performance of Jeff Fahey and I thought Sean Young definitely added some heat. All in all then, I rate this movie as slightly above average.

Could have done a better film with this premise. The first two thirds of the movie, where it was much more of a psychological story was much better than the denouement where some small amount of action was attempted. Jeff Fahey's performance was consistently good. It's good to see an actor who doesn't look like such a pretty boy. Sean Young was good at the beginning, but by the end, she had given in to the script.

"Sketch Artist" feels like just about everyone involved in making the movie - the actors, director, and writer - has the life sucked out of them before filming started. To begin with, take the title character, played by Jeff Fahey. There is no particular reason why we feel we should get involved in his plight. He is almost completely without emotion or passion, his appearance is sloppy, he makes some pretty dumb decisions, and his investigation of the mystery is done incredibly slowly, like he just doesn't care about what could happen to him. The director didn't seem to care about his character as well. There's no feeling of tension or panic anywhere in the movie, and the climax has the impact of a wet noodle hitting the ground.

I will admit that Drew Barrymore, in a limited role, does give a surprisingly decent performance. And it's always fun to see bald-headed actor James Tolkan play another authority figure, though his role is limited as well. But neither actor is given enough to make the movie worth watching.

I found this 1992 TV movie not only irritating but a waste of two good talents. What a waste to see Sean Young in a thankless role and Drew Barrymore seen only in a few clips. Both ladies, high on my list of good actresses, were seen only in a few scenes. And those scenes gave them nothing to do. Instead we're forced to watch Jeff Fahey play a role that got more irritating as it went along. If he chain smoked in another scene I was going to scream. With hair from the 70s, unshaven, unkempt and generally looking as seedy as you can get, you wondered what Sean saw in this loser. In life he'd never get away with what he does in this film. Stealing a car, as a detective, even having a police car pass him on the road and not getting stopped. I won't bother you with all the flaws of this movie. It was written by Michael Angeli and directed by Phedon Papamichael. So I give this loser 2 stars for the 2 ladies wasted in a bad bad movie.

Jeff Fahey stars as a sketch artist who basically takes a witness's(Drew Barrymore) details who then describes the sketch artist's wife (Sean Young) in denial about this Fahey launches his own investigation finding out secrets about his wife and her lover's shaky business ventures. Sketch Artist is actually far better than you would expect, for instance the film is downbeat and features characters who are cynical and willing to protect their own interests. Which brings us to our hero in Jeff Fahey who draws the picture wrong because he wants to keep his wife from being suspect. In real life things like this are not black and white, although people tend to find these antics unlikable it goes without saying that it gives more reality and dimension to a story that could be easily routine and transparent. While the story itself is routine, the story's downbeat angle and film noir style make this an interesting effort. A better than average TV movie if there ever was one.

* * * out of 4-(Good)