Mike Carlson

The movie has some curiously poignant moments, which are its saving grace. The tension between Clooney's and Kidman's characters is one of the only believable things about the whole movie. The effort to humanize the bereft Serb terrorist is also commendable, and not that common for a movie of this period. As to all the action and frenzy, well, I suppose it is 23 years old, and post-Bourne it's hard to handle the seemingly ham-fisted aspects of this. Both Clooney and Kidman put in good efforts, but as much as I appreciate the 'woman can do anything' effort, it's absolutely implausible that a government functionary could have the multiple levels of expertise she is supposed to have, and I don't care if the person is male or female. The orchestral score is monotonous and over-the-top the whole time, and the strident Russian and faux Slavic folk melodies get very tiresome. Armin Mueller-Stahl is a great character actor, but with that German accent he's not even trying to modulate, how am I supposed to believe he's a Russian? So, worth a watch, but not amazing. I wish I could give it a 3.5 stars.