The Flight of the Dove

Am watching this right now...Theresa Russell as always is easy as hell on the eyes, all long blonde hair, eyebrows and attitude. She and Scott Glenn-same old Sam Elliott-ish rawboned guy from 'Red October' and 'Urban Cowboy'-are light years better than their material here.

They're in the usual spy/intrigue/bad film noir direct to video sort of jobbie that Theresa was stuck in for most of the '90s-Trade Off, Public Enemy#1, Impulse(a good one actually...)etc. You expect Shannon Tweed to be in movies like this, not the gal who did 'Black Widow', 'Razor's Edge', 'Insignificance' and 'Bad Timing'. Glenn has also done things like 'Silverado'-he has talent which is certainly not used here.

Good guys like Alex Rocco and Lane Smith walk through their roles, not much to work with and not much inspiration either.

** stars, for Theresa and Scott, but little else.

Scott Glenn plays a tormented demolition expert, who is haunted by the deaths of a homeless family accidentally killed in his last building implosion. Theresa Russell is a government informant who seduces for secrets. After Russell is targeted for elimination by the government, she involves, and gets involved with Glenn. Using their expertise, the pair try to elude the hired hit men who relentlessly pursue them. There is good chemistry between the fleeing lovers. I was especially impressed with Russell's performance, because she is usually in artsy type films with little going on other than dialog. The ending is both clever and satisfying. - MERK

She's a NSA spy on the run. He's an innocent bystander with requisite guilt complex. They meet in a bar, spend a (very hot) night together and fall in love. Next day bad boys try to eliminate them, but they outsmart bad boys and begin - you've guessed it! - a happy new life. No problem imagining such a movie as low-budget camp comedy with Shannon Dougherty and Matthew Perry. Or as brainless summer actioner with Schwarzenegger and Neve Campbell\Jennifer Love Hewitt\etc. It's much harder imagining (let alone making) it with Theresa Russell and Scott Glenn - actors, whose personalities automatically suggest more twisted, complex and ambivalent story. A movie with such blatantly unprobable premise needs either Bruchheimer scope or Tarantino touch. Steve Railsback has neither. Former actor turned director, Railback obviously doesn't know how to act behind the camera and simply lets it go as it goes. Good actors caught in bad movie try to rise above the mediocrity but it's almost impossible. They still make some attempts when their heroes stop running, shooting or f***ing and begin talking. No, their lines are as banal as the action, but actors' faces sometimes display emotions unheard-of in the cartoon universe of the movie. When she's got a chance, Russell looks almost convincing in her character's transformations from vulgar broad to desperate woman, but she's still light years away from the image of tough agent. Glenn's situation is especially hard; in movie's clumsy erotic scenes he looks like he's dying of shame. But Glenn's inner charisma greatly helps him in his interactions with Russell when he isn't forced to do anything but exist onscreen. Helas, such moments are very rare and actors are wasted. Railsback, who once was an actor in classic "The Stunt Man", should know that a movie like "The Flight of the Dove" could work only if it was directed by someone like megalomaniac Eli Cross, his evil genius in that old masterpiece.

As films go, this one is pretty average. It is my first time to see Scott Glenn and Theresa Russell acting. In fact, there are no highs or lows as any aspect of the movie goes. Storyline, acting, cinematography, etc. all average. In the cast of characters, however, there is a problem. See my comments of this movie, if you've viewed it.

Watch Spy/Dove closely. Yes, Theresa Russell, Scott Glenn, Alex Rocco, Lane Smith, Joe Pantoliano among others surely are accomplished actors deserving of finer material. But they made this film as Americans were being lulled into complacency. Some involved in Spy clearly weren't.

Today? Spy proves prophetic. Look at the story. Isn't the protagonist Cathy O'Brien by another name? Rogue G-men outsourcing wet work to thugs? Who'd have thought? Not many in '94. Today?

Glenn and Russell's characters find themselves in twisted new world swirling with predatory undertows albeit superficially bland. New realities buffet them like serial tsunamis. Though Glenn's character at first won't see it, his and Russell's are similar. It's how they'll survive in a world in which everyone betrays everyone else.

Joe Pantoliano should have received an award for his performance as smarmy chivato sociopathic lawyer. Yes, redundant. Sorry. His grinning socio-baiter defines lawyers in specific and societal cancer in general.

As a 'great actor', doesn't he make you want to reach thru the screen and throttle him? Did I say something 'intimidating'? Does my visceral analysis of Pantoliano's interpretation constitute a Thought Crime? Will I lose my rights to a false malicious Restraining Order obtained by greaszy larcenous thugs of the sort portrayed in Spy?

Yes, I'm being facetious and for good reason. Art prophesies Life in Spy/Dove. Don't we find ourselves in a not so brave world? Guilty until proved guilty? Ms. Russell's character opted out of the world. Scott Glenn's temporarily defeated character followed. His first step? Fearless demonstration of compassion by pursuing the purse snatchers.

Isn't it telling when G/Thugs witness a home explosion and presume their quarry to be dead? Nevertheless, they advance not so much cautiously as timidly, with guns drawn? Of what were they afraid? Their own treachery? Spy contains insights vital for survival.

Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino

Manasota Key, Florida

06 October, 2006

"Truth leads a wretched life -

and always survives the lie."

• Cathy O'Brien