A retired detective accepts a simple task, unaware that it will tear open old, forgotten, but deadly wounds.
Paul Newman
Harry Ross
Susan Sarandon
Catherine Ames
Gene Hackman
Jack Ames
Reese Witherspoon
Mel Ames
Stockard Channing
Lt. Verna Hollander
James Garner
Raymond Hope
Giancarlo Esposito
Reuben Escobar
Liev Schreiber
Jeff Willis
Margo Martindale
Gloria Lamar
John Spencer
Capt. Phil Egan
M. Emmet Walsh
Lester Ivar
Peter Gregory
Verna's Partner
Rene Mujica
Mexican Bartender
Patrick Malone
Younger Cop
Lewis Arquette
Water Pistol Man
Michael Brockman
Garvey's Bartender
April Grace
Police Stenographer
Clint Howard
EMS Worker
John Cappon
Paramedic
Neil Mather
Young Cop #2
Ron Sanchez
Crime Scene Detective
Jack Wallace
Interrogation Officer
Jeff Joy
Carl
Jonathan Scarfe
Cop
Stephanie Beaton
Beth Koski (uncredited)
Jason Clarke
Young cop #1
Director, Writer
Robert Benton
Writer
Richard Russo
September 3, 2022
6
Whilst this boasts a really strong cast, it isn't really anything much to write home about as thriller. Retired cop "Ross" (Paul Newman) lives with the wealthy, but terminally ill, actor "Ames" (Gene Hackman) and his wife "Catherine" (Susan Sarandon). When a young girl is kidnapped, he is asked to deliver the ransom money - but as ever, no good deed goes unpunished, and soon he is embroiled in a twenty year old cold case involving her former husband that becomes distinctly perilous! James Garner appears and somehow that just put me in mind of one of the episodes from the "Rockford Files" upon which this could easily have been based. The cast are on screen, but they - especially Hackman - don't really seem to care. Their efforts are flat - not helped by an unremarkable screenplay and a plot that offers us nothing at all new. Indeed, one has to wonder what Paul Newman saw in it when he accepted the part. It's fairly clear to the audience who is pulling the strings and thereafter it's all just a procedural effort made watchable only by the charisma that is on the screen in spades. It is aptly named for the two leading gents; I doubt this is a film they would have touched in their prime.
Status:
Released
Original Language:
English
Budget:
$37,000,000.00
Revenue:
$15,055,091.00