MAREK KANIEVSKA

Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.5

Canada/United Kingdom/USA/Malta, 2004.  Lions Gate Films, Forum Films, Movision, fresh media.  Screenplay by Jim Piddock.  Cinematography by Jean Lepine.  Produced by Michael Cowan, Richard Lalonde, Jason Piette, Jan H. Vocke.  Music by Normand Corbeil.  Production Design by Anne Pritchard.  Costume Design by Francois Laplante.  Film Editing by Yvann Thibaudeau.  

Marek Kanievska reunites with his Another Country star Rupert Everett but the results are not as potent in this lame thriller. Everett is once again an idealistic Englishman betraying his country when he disappears from his home life with wife Sharon Stone and reappears on the other side of the Iron Curtain.  Stone, who left her first husband and unseated her two daughters (one of them played by future Revenge star Emily VanCamp) to be with Everett, is caught at a crossroads, she has no intention of angering her government but she wants to see her husband all the same.

An intriguing story (based on real events) should make for something much better than what happens here; hackneyed direction and bad dialogue combine with awkward performances from both the stars, who have zero chemistry, to make for a political thriller without the slightest hint of a thrill. Stone is hardly believable as the put-upon housewife in her initial scenes but gets warmer when she uses her steely eyes to pursue her husband’s fate, but Everett is a limp rag throughout, phoning in his lines and barely able to get any expression out of his overly Botoxed face.