The General's Daughter Review
by Michael Redman (redman AT indepen DOT com)July 9th, 1999
Too many secrets, not enough clues
The General's Daughter
A Film Review By Michael Redman
Copyright 1999 By Michael Redman
**1/2 (Out of ****)
We all have skeletons in our closet we'd rather not broadcast to the world. An ill-advised affair, illegal activities, sexual peccadilloes, a secret appetite for fried baloney and Velvetta sandwiches: it's a rare person without dirty laundry.
Most of the time, those clandestine activities are relatively harmless, proving only embarrassing if revealed. Occasionally though, they are devastating. Unfortunately the universe abhors secrets even more than a vacuum and we are usually outed.
Army Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson) has mysteries she will take to the grave. That's exactly when they are exposed.
Warrant Officer Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is finishing an investigation into weapon sales to a civilian when he stumbles onto an even more insidious case. Campbell is discovered dead, naked and staked spread-eagle to tent pegs in the middle of a training area.
And she's the daughter of a three-star general.
Assigned to work with Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe), rape counselor and investigator and — not so coincidentally since this is a movie -- a former lover, Brenner attempts to track down the murderer.
The investigation isn't as straight-forward as it appears it
first. Campbell may have seemed the bright and shiny perfect military officer, but she had a dark hidden side that complicates matters and threatens to bring down the entire base.
The film is very nearly a victory of style over substance, but falters along the way. The story doesn't quite work.
Unless there's an exceptional reason, one of the absolute "musts" of an involving mystery film is the audience has to have enough clues, if they are perceptive enough, to solve the crime. It doesn't happen
here.
There is no way anyone can deduce who the murderer is before he is exposed. On the other hand, some of the participants in Campbell's secretive past are all too apparent.
Travolta is fun to watch as he struts around in his cock-of-the-walk role, however his character remains an enigma. We have barely a clue as to who he is. James Woods has an interesting part as Campbell's mentor who delights in mind games with Brenner, but drifts into caricature too often.
Director Simon West has a film that could have been as good as it looks if only he'd paid a little more attention to what was going on.
(Michael Redman has written this column for so many years, he's run out of fingers and toes to keep track on. Email your closet skeletons to [email protected].)
[This appeared in the 6/24/99 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at [email protected]]
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