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Jason Maloney reviews 
Warner Home Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: D 019052
- Running time: 134 minutes
- Year: 2000
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Documentary, Audio commentary
Director:
- Taylor Hackford
Cast:
- Russell Crowe, Meg Ryan and David Morse
Overshadowed somewhat on its theatrical release by “are-they-or-aren’t they?” rumours concerning the film’s two main stars, Taylor Hackford‘s accomplished kidnap thriller deserves a fate other than notoriety for its part in the private lives of Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe.
1997’s Mel Gibson starrer Ransom covered the vagaries of abduction with a crowd-pleasingly mainstream approach, The Negotiator (1999) had Kevin Spacey walking a continual tightrope in his dealings with hostage scenarios, while this year’s lauded Steven Soderbergh movie Traffic detailed (rather too intricately for its own cinematic good) the escalating South American drug underworld. Taking a considered mixture of these familiar elements, Hackford pits the inordinately testosterone-fuelled screen presence of Russell Crowe (all brooding, never-say-die reliability) into an assortment of high-risk showdowns with extremely dodgy revolutionaries, mercenaries and shady corporate figures, all the name of justice and honour. If the role of fictional hero Jack Ryan were currently up for grabs, there would be no one more suited to play him (not even Harrison Ford, who eventually got the gig), to display that indomitable resilience and defiance of the odds. Crowe simply has it in spades.
Crowe’s character is given ample background explanations for his rugged demeanour and unwavering efficiency (military training, covert special op services), skills tested to their limit by the demands accompanying his job description and quiet breathtakingly outlined in an explosive prologue. This is no-frills movie-making at its most effective, punching its weight in the action stakes without sacrificing any dramatic or emotional impact.
Times have changed for Meg Ryan, as they invariably do for any golden-girl of the box-office charts, yet she as much as any of her peers (Pfeiffer, Bullock) is managing to stay afloat in a notoriously fickle movie industry (just don’t mention Hanging Up, though… better best forgotten, that one). Here, she doesn’t further her cause too emphatically, as her performance essentially reprises the tousle-haired vulnerability of her affecting turn in 1998’s City Of Angels, but Proof Of Life represents another solid addition to her CV nonetheless.
Not surprisingly, given the subsequent real-life developments between the pair, Ryan and Crowe spark off each other with real conviction, but she doesn’t always convince as a free-spirited, nature-loving conservationist – the script actually refers to her as a hippie, yet Ryan’s only concession is to wear a scarf tied around her head in one brief scene. There’s still the lingering suspicion that even after all this time Meg Ryan is best suited to cutesier, fluffier material… Courage Under Fire unreservedly excepted. Completing the story’s trio of central characters, David Morse provides a typically immaculate portrayal of Ryan’s husband, the catalyst for Proof Of Life‘s escalating drama and a key role if the entire premise and subsequent plot is to work at all.
Hackford’s direction is sharp and for the most part unfussy, but he does use a few editing tricks to spice up the aforementioned prologue. Overall, this straightforward approach maintains the necessary momentum and means Proof Of Life never eases up on the tension. Scenes of wordy exposition, and the need for detailed explanantion by Crowe to Ryan of what exactly his job entails in negotiating with the people who have her husband, manage to avoid bogging everything down in extended monologues (an unfortunate shortcoming of Michael Mann‘s potential thriller from last year, The Insider).
Proof Of Life won’t make many end-of-year critics’ polls – it lacks the requisite extravagant flourishes and auteur indulgences that so woo hardened tastemakers – but it’s thoroughly engaging and gripping stuff.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.