Date: Fri 09-Oct-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHIRLE

Quick Words:

Ropnin-De-Niro-Reno-Playing

Full Text:

NOW PLAYING: Storytelling With A Twist Works Well In "Ronin"

By Trey Paul Alexander III

A few years ago, Gerard Depardieu was Hollywood's gallic actor of choice. The

burly lead sought to convert the stardom he found in his homeland into

superstardom in the US. Now, studios seem to have found a new Frenchman to

suit their purposes: Jean Reno. After starring alongside young Natalie Portman

in The Professional , Reno has popped up in mega-blockbusters with Tom Cruise

(Mission: Impossible) and a heralded Japanese icon (Godzilla). He continues

his ascent with a role in Ronin , the recently released thriller directed by

John Frankenheimer and starring Robert De Niro.

Ronin features De Niro as an enigmatic loner who joins up with a gang of

strangers -- made up of Americans. Irish, French and Russians -- hired to

procure a silver briefcase of mysterious contents. This motley, mercenary crew

of unlikely cohorts, given instructions by an Irish activist (Natascha

McElhone), is left with many questions about their assignment... almost as

many as the audience, which is left to fend for itself as it tries to piece

together the various aspects of the narrative as the film progresses.

This is not a bad thing, mind you, just not always the fastest way to a

viewer's heart. Remember Mission: Impossible, Reno's other recent spy venture,

and its cryptic plotline? Some critics and audiences stood divided on the film

because of a story they found too circuitous. I found Mission Impossible one

of the more engrossing, blockbuster action films of the last few years, and I

believe patient viewers will also find themselves rewarded in Ronin, which is

filled with characters of multiple loyalties, shifting allegiances and

assorted double-crosses.

But in case such twisting storytelling is not exactly one's cup of tea,

Frankenheimer also fills the film with some of the most kinetic, involving car

chase sequences ever depicted on screen. Ronin unravels in a number of

postcard-friendly French locales, and somehow Frankenheimer received license

to demolish these lovely setting by hurling careening automobiles down narrow,

single-lane streets, putting pedestrians in mortal danger and violently

disrupting the tranquil merchant carts of lowly street vendors.

He even has the guts to take us through a high-speed chase scene that puts the

audience right in the driver's seat and into the exact same tunnel setting in

which Princess Diana and her carmates were killed. It's all frightening, yet

arresting. It dares us to look away. These fever-pitched pursuits prove to be

so addictive and adrenaline-enducing that you find yourself bobbing and

weaving with each hairpin turn.

Such attention to detail is not given to each of the characters, but

Frankenheimer has smartly cast the roles with actors whose performances help

flesh out whatever may be missing in the script. De Niro is more heroic than

we've seen him in years, possibly ever, as the lead. The film's opening titles

reveal that a "ronin" was a Samurai warrior in feudal Japan who had become a

mercenary because his previous master had died under his watch, and we're lead

to believe that De Niro's agent for hire is motivated by more than money but a

code of honor.

Also effective are Reno, as a weary, inquisitive mercenary tagging along with

De Niro, and Stellan Skarsgard as another one of the assembled crew of crafty

ex-agents.

Ronin is rated R for strong violence, graphic depictions (including a queasy

surgery sequence), and profanity. It's not a classic, like Frankenheimer's The

Manchurian Candidate , but it is a worthy effort, likely to keep you riveted

for its two hours.