Fausse piste

Merchant sailor Alex Walker (Kevin Anderson) is stranded in Mexico after missing his ship's departure. His wallet is stolen and the man who stole it is killed by somebody. The cops are after him for the murder. He joins up with Phillip Mills (John Lithgow) and his trophy wife Missy (Rosanna Arquette).

Kevin Anderson is a weak actor and his character isn't particularly interesting either. Arquette is broadly sexual. She even sleeps sucking her thumb. She has some fun camping it up. However Anderson is the black hole of charisma. Lithgow is possessive and jealous. The production is not high quality. If they could get a charismatic leading man, this could be an interesting trio.

Have to admit this thriller movie with some twists was fun and nostalgic to watch on VHS. Best recommendation to watch like you're going back in time. Good thriller also.

a brilliant film, wonderfully directed by Jim McBride: it breaks all the cheesy corny conventions of the "TV movie", the story swerves and moves and lives just as vibrantly as the characters do, this is one of the better movies I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. The movie transcends genre, the acting is believable, the characters are neither good nor bad, moral nor immoral, human or inhuman, there's a clever combination of all these things which makes them complex and frustrating maybe but never boring.

The acting is amazing, the story has real depth: it might not hit you straight away but the characters show their personality traits, and as a result more and more of themselves as the film goes on.

In a south of the border setting, Lithgow is the quintessential Ugly American, Arguette his bimbo wife, and Anderson a bland non-entity on the run from the law. If you like seeing Arguette undraped (and it certainly beats being poked in the eye with a sharp stick) this third rate flick merits a look. Other than that, not much to recommend.

The story is basically very simple: innocent man runs away from police who suspect him from murder. The makers of this movie chose not to create another hide and seek movie. Instead, their attention went to the characters, and not only of the protagonists. John Lithgow is brilliant as tha loudmouth doing 'monkey business', Kevin Anderson is great as the introvert suspect and Rosanna Arquette is lovely to watch as the sensual Missy. If look close, you'll notice that also the characters of the Mexican policemen have been drawn nicely. A movie for those who like to watch better movies only.