Twilight Review
by Walter Frith (wfrith AT netinc DOT ca)March 9th, 1998
'Twilight'
A movie review by Walter Frith
Member of the 'Internet Movie Critic's Association' at:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/5713/index.html
I was reminded throughout 'Twilight' that with all of the accomplishments the creators of this film have had that none of them turn in their best work and they didn't intend to. With an Elmer Bernstein score to keep things running, if you closed your eyes, you would swear that a film from the 1940's or 50's was being played out, with the exception of a few four letter words of unnecessary choice for the tone of this movie's intended audience. It isn't limited to only fans of those old gumshoe adventures involving murder, sex, seduction, blackmail, or otherwise, but it is a film more suited to those who know the history of its leading actors and the dangling intrigue of suspense thrillers.
At 73 years young, Paul Newman has the masculine prowess of a man 15 years younger and although he sports an unwanted mustache (women will like it), he still manages to give it all he can and succeeds magnificently. Newman stars as a former police officer and former private investigator who now dabbles in the occasional assignment, mostly for his friends, a couple of former Hollywood stars, portrayed by Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon.
At the beginning of the film, Newman is in Mexico to bring Hackman and Sarandon's daughter (a minor at 17) back to the States and he encounters a rough time as the girl knocks his gun loose and nearly shoots off his....*ahem*, you figure it out.
Newman is asked by Hackman to deliver a package and encounters a few 9mm rounds fired at him in the attempt. Newman later discovers that someone could be blackmailing his friends as they are possibly implicated in the mysterious death of Sarandon's first husband and that is all I will tell you about the inner complexities plot.
Almost 70 himself, Gene Hackman plays his role with a sense of simplistic style, naive of his wife's infidelities and his health begins to fail. He collapses one night from assumed heart failure and tries to contact Newman who hears him on his answering machine and Sarandon jumps out of Newman's bed, complete with his recognizable polo shirt on and comes to Hackman's aid, exposing the affair.
Susan Sarandon is sultry in the role of the cheating wife and throw in James Garner for good measure as a cop turned high paid security chief and you have the makings for all the conflicting elements of human nature and the mix for a great set of actors to recite some snappy dialogue written by Robert Benton and Richard Russo and directed by Benton who last directed Newman in 'Nobody's Fool', from 1994. Benton is the owner of three Oscars including his writing and directing efforts on 1979's 'Kramer vs. Kramer', which also won Best Picture.
Not a classic film but a film done with class, 'Twilight' is a fitting title bestowed upon a cast whose best work is probably behind them and they can now choose work more subtle because they don't need the challenges of motion pictures and their past work shows they have nothing left to prove. A mild success which many may mistake as being unnecessarily tame.
OUT OF 5 > * * * 1/2
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