Proof of Life film review

certificate_15

PROOF OF LIFE

Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe are better actors than perhaps we give them credit for. There is not one smouldering ember of their widely reported real-life romance in Taylor Hackford's contemporary thriller.

They concentrate so hard on concealing their true feelings from the camera, that they extinguish all of the film's sexual longing and tension. Proof Of Life offers no vicarious thrills for tabloid voyeurs. In fact, it offers no thrills whatsoever.

When American engineer Peter Bowman (Morse) is abducted by guerrillas in Columbia, ace kidnap and ransom negotiator Terry Thorne (Crowe) is called in by the US government to secure his release. Peter's beautiful young wife Alice (Ryan) and sister Janis (Pamela Reed) are distraught and desperately need reassurance that their loved one is still alive.

Terry soon allays their fears and begins the tense discussions with Peter's captors. However, he finds his objectivity severely comprised when he begins to falls in love with Alice, posing a potentially lethal conflict of interests.

Crowe delivers a disappointingly one-note performance, devoid of the passion and fire we saw in Gladiator. He spends half the movie scowling in army combats and the other half emotionless in an ill-fitting suit.

Ryan alternates - seemingly at will - between being tear-eyed and simpering. There's little indication of her character's concern for Peter, nor the moral quandary in which she finds herself when torn between two men.

Hackford props up by the faltering romance with two protracted action sequences including the rescue attempt of Peter from the Colombian jungle. These scenes inject some much needed adrenaline, but cannot hide the film's fatal flaw - the total lack of sexual chemistry between the leads.