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Santa Cruz Style
March 12, 2004 Caine is able, but ‘Statementel CORRESPONDENTIn 1943, the Vichy government created a military force to carry out the orders of the Nazi occupiers of France. In the early morning hours on June 29, 1944, these Frenchmen executed seven Jews point blank. A memorial now stands by the roadside where the incident took place. "The Statement" is a fictional rendering of the hunt for one of the police officers who pulled the trigger. Set in modern day, Michael Caine stars as Pierre Broussard, a leading man as monstrous as Hannibal Lechter and equally fascinating. Unfortunately, the rest of the film isn’t quite up to Caine’s complex characterization. With a script written by Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist"), this story of a Nazi collaborator on the run ought to have us on the edges of our seats. But director Norman Jewison, whose long career includes the stylish gamesmanship of "The Thomas Crown Affair" and thus ought to know a thing or two about bringing the thrill to a thriller, delivers a surprisingly lackadaisical travelogue through France. Perhaps that’s why Caine’s excellent performance was overlooked by Oscar and the Golden Globes. "The Statement" is a leftover film from last year, now getting wide release in the doldrums before the deluge of blockbuster summer films. However, this timing happens to work in the film’s favor. The belated release coincides with the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ," and this is lucky timing, for the two films make interesting companion pieces. As "The Passion" may give the impression that Jews were responsible for the death of Christ, the tables are turned in "The Statement," suggesting the Catholic Church is responsible for crimes against Jews during the Second World War. In "The Statement," Broussard is a religious fanatic, shielded for life from his crimes by a right-wing faction of the Catholic Church, similar to the splinter group to which Gibson’s father — and possibly Mel himself — belongs, a faction so zealous that, as one character in the film describes such splinter groups: "It doesn’t even believe the Pope is Catholic." In other words, the Vatican is too liberal to be considered genuinely Catholic by such folks. "The Statement," based on the novel by Brian Moore, is about Broussard on the run, hunted by two enemies: a government agency led by a half-Jewish judge (Tilda Swinton) and a mysterious, possibly Jewish, cabal who hires assassins to track down Broussard and leave a statement of his war crimes pinned to his corpse. It’s a race to see who will get him first.
It’s too bad there’s no such thing in the movie biz as a "do over." Good political thrillers are hard to come by, and given the fine director, screenwriter and cast, "The Statement" should have been a better movie. As it is, it’s a thriller severely lacking in thrill.
If You Go WHAT: ‘The Statement.’ RATING: R: violence. WHERE: The Nickelodeon, 426-7500. LENGTH: 2 hours. VERDICT: C.
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