Twilight (1998)
Overview
A retired detective accepts a simple task, unaware that it will tear open old, forgotten, but deadly wounds.
Cast
Paul Newman
Harry Ross
Susan Sarandon
Catherine Ames
Gene Hackman
Jack Ames
Reese Witherspoon
Mel Ames
Stockard Channing
Lt. Verna Hollander
James Garner
Raymond Hope
Giancarlo Esposito
Reuben Escobar
Liev Schreiber
Jeff Willis
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CinemaSerf
Whilst this boasts a really strong cast, it isn't really anything much to write home about as thriller. Retired cop "Ross" (Paul Newman) lives with the wealthy, but terminally ill, actor "Ames" (Gene Hackman) and his wife "Catherine" (Susan Sarandon). When a young girl is kidnapped, he is asked to deliver the ransom money - but as ever, no good deed goes unpunished, and soon he is embroiled in a twenty year old cold case involving her former husband that becomes distinctly perilous! James Garner appears and somehow that just put me in mind of one of the episodes from the "Rockford Files" upon which this could easily have been based. The cast are on screen, but they - especially Hackman - don't really seem to care. Their efforts are flat - not helped by an unremarkable screenplay and a plot that offers us nothing at all new. Indeed, one has to wonder what Paul Newman saw in it when he accepted the part. It's fairly clear to the audience who is pulling the strings and thereafter it's all just a procedural effort made watchable only by the charisma that is on the screen in spades. It is aptly named for the two leading gents; I doubt this is a film they would have touched in their prime.
JPV852
Great cast in a so-so neo-noir thriller. Paul Newman, Gene Hackman and Susan Sarandon were great and Newman's scenes with Hackman was some of the highlights. Also get to see Reese Witherspoon (and all her glory) and Liev Schreiber in supporting roles, along with James Garner who was always great even in a smaller role here. But the script and noir never quite clicked for me and the ending was a bit predictable, however at the very least this never dragged. **3.0/5**
