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Taylor Hackford pushed the lions share of the blame for the poor box-office of "Proof of Life" onto Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan saying their blooming relationship hurt the films potential.
Taylor Hackford pushed the lions share of the blame for the poor box-office of "Proof of Life" onto Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan saying their blooming relationship hurt the films potential.
Proof of Life: Special Edition
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"Proof of Life" is known as the film that broke up Meg Ryan's long time marriage with actor husband Dennis Quaid. During filming it was reported that Meg fell in love with her co-star Gladiator's Russell Crowe. This controversy and negative publicity ultimately hurt the film's box office. To add insult to injury the director Taylor Hackford pushed the lions share of the blame onto Crowe and Ryan saying their blooming relationship hurt the films potential. While this may be partially true, I think the film was just released in an overcrowded marketplace. Now one of the holiday seasons most underrated and overlooked films comes to DVD.
Terry Thorne (Russell Crowe) is a K&R representative for Lutheran Risk International. A large firm that specializes in insuring employees of various companies when they are situated in areas of the world that can be deemed hostile. As the film opens Terry is presenting his last case report to the board members in which he successfully overcame the Russian Military in order to rescue his target.
Meanwhile over in South America, American citizen and engineer Peter Bowman (David Morse) is working on his dream project. A water dam that is being built to stop flooding and to protect an oil pipeline that the company Peter is working is trying to build. However there is a problem, none of the supplies to build the dam have left the United States. Peter drags his wife Alice (Meg Ryan) to a party being thrown by the army where he needs to talk to the company bigwigs. However no one from the company shows up, other than a messenger who explains to Peter that the company is being bought out and that the new management doesn't care about the dam. The next day on the way to work a spiritual parade causes Peter to detour from his usual route and encounter a road block. Before he knows it men with ski-masks are attacking vehicles and kidnapping people. He pleads with the men to spare him and that he is of no worth to them but they take him anyway.
Terry is assigned to the case and explains to Alice that these things aren't pretty and are often very stressful but if she let's him do things his way then Peter will come home unharmed. Along the way Terry finds help in the form of a colleague of his Dino (David Caruso - ex of NYPD Blue).
"Proof of Life" is told in an interesting manner as the film cuts between the two stories. Terry and Alice and the negotiations for Peter's return and the experiences Peter has while being held captive. However while this is an interesting approach it does hurt the film at times. Like Hackford's 1997 picture "The Devil's Advocate" the film seems rather long and could have used some tightening up in the editing booth. While sections of the film are fast paced others aren't which causes the last 45 minutes of the film to drag before reaching it's action packed conclusion.
The performances in the film are top-notch. Russell Crowe is excellent as a suave ex-military expert who knows his business well. Meg Ryan turns in a performance more reminiscence of her earlier work as she brings a sincere and caring outlook to her character who is caught in a tough situation. She remains calm under pressure longer than anyone I've ever met. This movie is a step forward for Meg after such recent drivel as Hanging Up. David Morse who up until now has been primarily a supporting actor is given a larger role here. Morse who previously had small roles in "The Green Mile" and "Contact" is really given his chance to shine here and he is excellent in this role. Here's another fine example of a quality actor you can get without having to pay the outrageous salary. A few more performances like this and Morse could very well be making a fair bit per picture.
While the film runs a tad long at 135 minutes and suffered from bad press resulting in a less than stellar box office take. It's a good picture that shouldn't be overlooked.
When this story was posted in November 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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