Date: Fri 11-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DONNAM

Illustration: C

Location: A12

Quick Words:

Playing-Kilmer-Saint-Shue

Full Text:

(rev "The Saint" for Now Playing, 4/18/97)

Now Playing-

Kilmer Is A Saint That Sinks

By Trey Paul Alexander III

Val Kilmer flashes his pearly whites, rolls enough accents off his tongue to

make his dialogue coach proud, and casts smoldering glances from the screen in

the new motion picture release, The Saint , playing at the Cine in Danbury.

Whereas the versatile Kilmer was perhaps overwhelmed by the immense visual,

stylistic machinery of the Batman franchise in his lone outing as the caped

crusader in Batman Forever , here he is the one washing away everything in his

path.

As Simon Templar, gentleman thief and master of disguise, Kilmer gets to don

countless wigs and varying verbal inflections, from a paunchy, balding English

scholar to a raven-haired Spaniard, to a German artist with flowing tresses.

However, in this reworking of the venerable Templar character, created by

Leslie Charteris in the 1930s and played by numerous actors including a

pre-Bond Roger Moore in the `60s TV series, there is scant enough narrative

machinery to balance out Kilmer's eccentric chowing down of the scenery.

The plot involves a maverick Russian politico (Rade Serbedzija) seeking to

gain authority in his native country. His key to restoring strength to the

motherland is gaining the formula for cold fusion, a breakthrough discovery

for the generation of power. Dr Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue), the scientist

behind this innovation, therefore becomes his chief target, and he hires

Templar, a sly burglar who once bested him and his defenses, to procure her

notes. But this man of a thousand faces (yet nary a single character trait)

finds himself falling hard for Russell and must decide whether to follow his

expanding Swiss bank account or his feelings.

Paired with Shue, who tosses every stereotype about nerdy scientists out the

window as a head-turning physicist, Kilmer and his co-star run roughshod over

this movie; they make a smashing couple and appear to be having a good time.

However, they're the only ones enjoying themselves. Though the eyes will not

weary of watching them, The Saint grows quickly tiresome because it invests so

little in the development of its characters or, for that matter, an engaging

plot.

Going into the film, all signs looked positive. Kilmer, fresh from being let

out of the Batman movies, had something to prove. (Is he popular enough to

carry his own series?) Shue, hot off an unprecedented Oscar nomination for

Leaving Las Vegas , wanted to confirm that she merits to be counted as a

legitimate leading lady. Director Phillip Noyce was coming off two successful

Tom Clancy adaptations ( Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger ) starring

Harrison Ford. So, what went wrong?

The strength of Noyce's Clancy celluloid versions (besides having Ford as his

leading man) was his attention to detail and the methodical untangling of a

story. Each film boasted the strength of complex, well-plotted narratives that

were punctuated (though not defined) by taut, craftsman-like action sequences.

Yet The Saint lacks any connective tissue for its narrative. It just strings

together a bunch of moments set in such picturesque locales as Moscow and

Oxford, and though the settings are luxurious, the moments themselves are

lackluster.

Also, surprisingly, Noyce provides his film with little punch. Basically, it

consists of endless chase scenes in which Templar and Russell run from the bad

guys: no memorable escape scenes, no eye-popping action sequences, and the

added handicap of uncharismatic villains.

The Saint , rated PG-13 for mild violence, profanity and suggestiveness, is

not a case of talented people slumming their way through a movie. It's Exhibit

A of the charmless madness that occurs when there is no discernible method to

a movie's narrative reasoning.