Dangereuse rencontre

You will be surprised by Pierce Brosnan in this film a number of times, but the other actors are also excellent, Shanna Reed as the mother and Terry O'Quinn as the drinking father. It's a complicated family drama, beginning with divorce procedures in which the mother (Shanna Reed) gets all the custody of the boy, which the father (Terry O'Quinn) refuses to accept, which is why he from the beginning appears as the villain of the play. However, as matters develop, you learn that he is a policeman, and his objections against Shanna Reed's new husband (Pierce Brosnan) should be quite normal for a natural father, but he is not. Things really get complicated when the boy is kidnapped, and no one can understand by whom or why, since there is no demand for any ransom. Finally things get really heated when the kidnappers are located with a resulting shootout, but both Brosnan and O'Quinn also carry guns. Meanwhile the whole mess of the family business lying behind it all is gradually sorted out, and there are some final settlements. It's a great thriller, great acting performances, a very well written script revealing only morsels at a time, so there is no chance for any naps of boredom. You will stick to it till the end even if the final solution will occur afterwards.

The first thing I'll say about the film is this. Pierce. Yes, the mighty mighty Pierce. Don't be fooled though, just because of Pierce factor it doesn't mean that this movie is good, far from it infact. From Pierce demonstrating his culinary skills at making vegeburgers, to Pierce being violently assulted while sitting on a stool eating said vegeburgers this movie is poor, and believe me, it could have been better but for the directing. Pierces acting is nothing short of grade A, but the entire film seems pushed along quickly, and that, combined with the bogstandard plot makes it seem like the director wanted the maximum amount of Pierce in the movie, hoping that that alone would hold up the movie, sadly it didn't

Verdict - Bogstandard plot(0) + rushed scenes(0) + Peirce(4) > 4/10

A conventional genre for filmmakers may be titled Theatre of Paranoia, within which are copious examples, this piece being one, wherein a protagonist is stalked or harried or wrongly envisioned or trapped or prejudiced against, i.e., in some way made to suffer by, generally, one person distracted by jealousy or some other mania. The victim here is Jane Bonner, splendidly played by Shanna Reed, who is tormented by her former husband Robert (Terry O'Quinn), a police detective with an extraordinary amount of free time who is maddened due to the disbanding of a joint custody agreement for the ex-couple's eight-year-old son, during divorce proceedings, Bonner's harassment becoming so acute that Jane and her new spouse Patrick (Pierce Brosnan) decide to leave their Saint Louis home and drive to California to start life anew, only to have Bonner trail them. Director Robert Lewis paces the film solidly during its initial scenes only to have his efforts hamstrung by excessive cutting along with a disjointed screenplay that is heavily reliant upon fancy, in addition to below standard post-production work (e.g., a car following Jane and Patrick is seen being driven from both sides of the front seat by its sole occupant), and a garish lack of knowledge concerning law enforcement procedures is only too evident.

Throughout this foolish affair that the film becomes, Reed shines, easily gathering in acting honours with a subtly layered and credible performance, and O'Quinn also acts well, especially in light of his written dialogue. Richard Leiterman's cinematography is expert as always and fitting underscoring is contributed by Joseph Conlan, but the scenario's collapse into nearly total incongruity and odd character metamorphosis becomes too great of a handicap.

Scenes that cut from dramatic-seeming build-ups to something that may or may not show the conclusion. A speech or two from the strong, nearly independent main, and of course female, character, to one of the weaker, and in general lesser, men. Crying, if however brief, in the shower. This really has all that makes a Lifetime flick, though I don't know if it actually is one. I don't have a problem with women being empowered, or a lot of airtime being dedicated to it, I just think that the films can be less clichéd than I understand they are. With that said, the twists in this are pretty unexpected and interesting, if not necessarily all credible. Also, that's about where the above-average qualities end. The writing sacrifices realism and consistency for victimization and aforementioned surprise occurrences whenever they saw fit to do so. The "action" tends to be so half-heartedly put on the screen that you can't tell what's going on. The cinematography ranges between passable and just plain uninspired. The acting varies, O'Quinn outshines the rest, and not all of his fellow performers are awful. The kid actively appeared daft, both real life and his character. The language is fairly limited, a couple of moderate strength words here and there, and nothing else particularly objectionable, apart from perhaps the thematic material and a little violence. The entire thing is "fine". Could do worse, won't be difficult to do better. I recommend it to big fans of those involved, and those absolutely famished for a crime-thriller they haven't yet watched. 6/10

This movie had a surprising end! But I loved it anyways! A nice movie to relax with...especially when my fav. actor Pierce Brosnan is in it!!