Sidney Lumet has made some of my favorite films, including NETWORK and DOG DAY AFTERNOON. This film has a wonderful premise, but a distracting focus. The story follows a family who are on the run from the FBI because in the 1970s the parents Annie (Christine Lahti, TV's CHICAGO HOPE) and Arthur Pope (Judd Hirsch, TV's TAXI) blew up a napalm factory, which unintentionally blinded and crippled a janitor who wasn't supposed to be there.
Annie and Arthur have two sons Danny (River Phoenix, INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE) and Harry (Jonas Abry, SLAVES OF NEW YORK). The family is constantly moving as the feds get wind of where they may be. Danny is becoming bitter about his life because he's about to graduate high school and won't be able to go to college to study music. The family moves to a new town and Danny starts to date his music teacher's daughter Lorna (Martha Plimpton, GOONIES). Danny is a piano phenomenon and the film focuses a lot on his struggles with his family's secrets and the loss of his freedom. As Danny's feelings become clear to Annie and Arthur, they must deal with the decision to let Danny leave or keep the family together.
Arthur is more determined to keep the family together because he knows that if he let's Danny leave he will never see him again. However, Annie understands lost opportunity more and feels it is unfair to hold back Danny because of choices that she made. The best scene in the film is when Annie goes to her father (Steven Hill, THE FIRM) to ask him to take in Danny. This scene reveals so much in such a short period of time and is one of the best written scenes I've ever seen. But the power of this scene is also set up by the presence of an earlier scene when another former radical named Gus (L.M. Kit Carson, CQ) shows up at the Pope's wanting them to participate in a bank robbery.
The film is Danny's story and reminded me a little of ORDINARY PEOPLE, which tells the tale of a family through the eyes of the child. However, unlike Timothy Hutton's character in that film, River Phoenix's character is less interesting. I found Annie to be the most intriguing character. After I finished watching the film, I wished Annie was more of the focus, but as I sat down to write this review I thought about it and came to the conclusion that the film had to build Danny's character to tell this story. I still feel that Annie could have been the central character even with the exact same material. But Lumet chose Danny, who ultimately doesn't have as much of a choice in the matter of his future as does his parents.
But I can't deny the intelligence and eye for detail that the film has. I love the contrast of making Danny a classical piano player to his father's love of rock 'n roll. Even a radical's son will rebel. In the end, the story, anchored by wonderful performances from the entire cast, won me over. And despite my qualm with who I felt should have been the central character, I still find this to be a moving and powerful film as it is.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
