waia2000

Dead Man Walking is an excellent film, mainly due to the performances of its cast. Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn are simply fantastic as Sister Helen Prejean and the death row inmate to whom she offers counseling. I was also impressed by the actors playing the parents of the couple murdered by the prisoner and his cohort in crime.

Overall director Tim Robbins seemed to address the issue of the death penalty in an even-handed way, but I take issue with Sister Helen's strongly-held belief that "killing to prove that killing is wrong is wrong." To me, the larger, more important issue is keeping the innocent safe from predation by vicious killers.

Elliot Gould, Fred Gwynne, Mike Farrell and Margot Kidder turn in reasonably good performances but the script is the factor that kills this TV movie. Farrell leads as a man whose wife went missing on their honeymoon. Elliot Gould holds his own as a cop transplanted from the Bronx to the Rocky Mountain boonies. The identity of the characters played by Margot Kidder and Fred Gwynne figure heavily into the mystery (such as it is) so I won't go into detail here.

This is not a total disaster -- it is watchable and somewhat interesting. Ultimately, though, it falls apart under the weight of the inferior script.

This so-called comedy is a waste of time for all involved. The assembled cast is certainly capable of better things, but the writing is subpar and the direction is inferior to that of many tv shows.

The plot, which consists of a number of people seeking a treasure, has been done many times, nearly all of them better. This is a project that says nothing and goes nowhere. Slowly.