Proof of Life Review
by John Sylva (DeWyNGaLe AT aol DOT com)January 1st, 2001
PROOF OF LIFE (2000)
Reviewed by John Sylva
Rating: C-
Hot off the covers of the trashy tabloid circuit, current Hollywood couple Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe co-star in Taylor Hackford's equally shallow Proof of Life, a slipshod genre bender heavy on style, but light on substance.
Set in a variety of exotic South American settings, Proof of Life has several major plot points: Terrorist groups are causing mayhem throughout Tecala, resulting in a recklessly unstable atmosphere and high tension. Meanwhile, engineer Peter Bowman (David Morse) is captured and held ransom for $3 million by guerrillas who are outraged at Bowman's company's attempt to construct an oil pipeline. Enter Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe), K & R (kidnap and ransom) negotiator, who is determined to locate and free Peter-but is it for the love of the job or his attraction to Peter's "little hippie" wife, Alice (Meg Ryan)? Does it matter either way? Proof of Life seems to think so.
Writer Tony Gilroy scripts Proof of Life without an ounce of inspiration or apparent grasp of the subject matter, which is derived from the Vanity Fair article "Adventures in the Ransom Trade" by William Prochnau, as well as the book The Long March to Freedom by Thomas Hargrove. Both mediums must have been quite a bit more intriguing than Proof of Life would lead one to believe. Far better, more exciting films relating to the subject (one standout being 1998's Kevin Spacey starring The Negotiator) have been released in the past that cover ground that Hackford's film should have touched upon, but the only ground Proof of Life touches is the surface.
An intended romance between Terry and Alice is put to an immediate death due to lack of chemistry and plausibility. If one were not aware of the current situation between Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, or had not seen the misleading trailer, there would be no evidence that romance was associated with the film at all.
Ryan's performance lacks dramatic intensity, making for an uninteresting, uneven, and forgettable protagonist that becomes increasingly harder to sympathize with as the film progresses. Crowe is perhaps underestimated in terms of talent by director Hackford, as Crowe's Terry is not used to the fullest extent it could have been as far as the storyline goes. Newfound superstar Crowe has shown a niche to play intense characters in the past, but Terry does not provide a credible outlet for Crowe's acting abilities. The lone strong character in the film is David Morse's Peter Bowman, who gives Morse the opportunity to show his stunning diversity, as he also did in this year's Dancer in the Dark and 1999's The Green Mile. But as fate would have it, Hackford manages to almost ruin one of the film's few bright spots by putting a constant emphasis on Morse's harsh settings and captors, staging scenes of Peter's torture heartlessly and with gratuitous violent outrage, stealing attention from the film's lone stand-out performance.
Hackford often throws in bits of needless action, attempting to keep things alive, but the scenes come off unbelievable and out of place, as even Crowe's character has to explain at a certain point: "That's got nothing to do with us." Almost incessantly, Hackford tries to breathe new life into Proof, but comes up dead short in the end. Hackford's lazy, shallow direction relies solely on the two marquee names to bring his thriller to life, resulting in a foggy and muddled film that is not dramatic enough to be a drama, not romantic enough to be a romance, nor thrilling enough to be a thriller.
THE BOTTOM LINE: Proof of Life is a dull, often lifeless thriller that lacks an emotional core.
Film reviewed December 29th, 2000.
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