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Germany released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), German ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Interactive Menu, Production Notes, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: In a small town in Argentina, Dr. Plarr, a Paraguayan exile, becomes involved in a terrorist plot when he is offered the chance to get his father out of jail. ...The Honorary Consul ( Beyond the Limit )
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the better Graham Greene adaptations,
By
This review is from: The Honorary Consul ( Beyond the Limit ) [DVD] (DVD)
The Honorary Consul/Beyond the Limit has an especially low reputation in the US, mainly because of the antipathy many feel to Richard Gere, but it's one of the best Graham Greene adaptations to date, and infinitely more successful than Philip Noyce's disappointing version of The Quiet American (which explores similar themes) with it's over-rated and rather lazily mechanical star-turn from Michael Caine. By contrast, Caine here is staggeringly good, totally inhabiting the character's flaws without 'giving a performance' - here he's inside the drunken Charlie Fortnum's skin completely and doesn't need to act. Gere certainly offers him better support than the disastrous Brendan Fraser, managing an acceptable English accent and capturing the character's emotional apathy. Bob Hoskins is also on top understated form as the local police chief, avoiding turning him into Senor Haroldo Shand and coming up with an amiably sympathetic but dangerous presence that owes nothing to his usual stock-in-trade characters.
The irony of timing of seeing a film about a fictional British hostage no-one wants back in the week after a real-life British hostage his government didn't want back was murdered in Iraq only occurred to me later. There are similarities (Caine's character even has a much-younger foreign wife while the Americans here also put pressure on the British government not to act), but being a Graham Greene story this is much more concerned with moral responsibility, lapsed Catholicism and, ultimately, an act of forgiveness that sees the film's nominally weakest and most compromised character emerge as it's strongest. Well directed by John Mackenzie with superb photography by Phil Meheux that compliment each other to give a convincing sense of everyday life in a military dictatorship, it's highly recommended. The German DVD offers a decent transfer with English soundtrack and removeable German subtitles and also includes the original trailer.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This film raises moral qusestions,
By Israel Drazin - Published on Amazon.com
The "limit" in this film's title may refer to the limits of morality, for this is a theme of the film, based on a book by Graham Greene. An exiled Paraguayan physician, Richard Greer, who is half English, is living and practicing medicine in Argentina. His father, as far as he knows, is still in Paraguay, and he is trying to find out how he is. He sees a beautiful prostitute in a whore house, is attracted to her, goes toward her to bed her, but another man beats him to her and takes her to a room. He goes back to find her, but learns that she gave up her profession. He sees her in a optical shop, approaches her, talks to her, buys her a pair of glasses, takes her to his apartment, sleeps with her, and asks her name when she is leaving. He discovers that she is the wife of a boozing "honorary consul" of England, Michael Cain. Greer establishes a very friendly relationship with the honorary consul and the two like each other. He meets with his wife frequently and she is soon pregnant with his baby.
Paraguayan rebels kidnap the honoree consul thinking that he is a visiting American Ambassador, and wound him in the leg. They ask for Greer's help. They lead him on by saying they want to help him get information about his father, and do not reveal that his father is dead. Neither England nor America wants to help the honorary consul because as he says, "They will be quite delighted to get me out of their hands at last." The corrupt Argentinean police do come to his rescue with devastating results. The film raises moral questions. Should Greer have respected his friendship with Cain, as Cain says to him when he finds out about the adultery, and not bedded his wife? Should Greer have continued having sex with Cain's wife when he did not love her? Did England and America act properly when they did not help Cain because he over-indulges in drinking alcohol? Was the brutal manner in which the Argentinean police acted against the rebels moral? Was Cain a moral man and did he act morally at the end of the film, or was he just a fool? |
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