The Statement [DVD] [2004]

For the first 15 minutes or so it's hard to see quite why Norman Jewison's The Statement drew such derision during its blink-and-you'll-miss-it theatrical run. Then Michael Caine starts to Act with a capital A and suddenly the film falls to bits around you as you realize just how horribly miscast the whole thing is.

Brian Moore's source novel could almost be a belated sequel to Lacombe, Lucien, with its French Nazi collaborator finding himself on the run from both the police and a group of assassins in the wake of the new Crimes Against Humanity laws, in the process relying on the help of those officials who slipped through the net after the war and those in the Catholic Church who approved of his anti-communist rationale for his actions. It's a fine part for the right actor - say Philippe Noiret or Jean Rochefort - but a terrible one for Caine, playing to all his weaknesses: he's never been good at grief, extroverted rage or Uriah Heapish obsequiousness, all of which are required here as the character hovers between a desperate religious faith and callous manipulation and all of which Caine fails miserably at. Sadly he's not alone. As if to compensate for the absurdity of casting a cockney as a Vichy Frenchman, this Anglo-Canadian-French co-production doesn't have a single French actor in a speaking role, instead populating the film almost entirely with British character actors delivering 'typically French' dialogue, though thankfully none attempt the accent. It's not so much that they're even bad actors, just the wrong ones: Tilda Swinton's examining magistrate isn't one of her finer hours, Jeremy Northam's unlikely French Army colonel meanders through the film with a bemused smirk, while Charlotte Rampling play's Caine's chambermaid ex-wife wiv a bit orra Saff Lundin accent that makes you wonder if she really has been living in France all those years. Only Edward Petherbridge, Frank Finlay and Alan Bates manage to come away with their honour intact. There's an interesting idea for a film in here, with Moore's recurring themes of the conflict between the desire for salvation constantly undermined by the harsh realities of the world still visible through the cracks, and there's a nice rationale behind the 'Jewish commando' group trying to kill him, but the result just looks like glossy Sunday evening television despite Jewison's visually assured direction.

Although his films aren't always artistic successes, Michael Caine is one of my favorite actors, and at his best when his character is cheekily likable, e.g. in THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975), SLEUTH (1972), SECONDHAND LIONS (2003). Rarely, he plays someone hateful, the most recent coming to mind being SHINER (2000). Here, in THE STATEMENT, his on-screen persona is oddly ambiguous, and it's left to supporting characters to provide the plot's protagonists.

It's June 1942, and a young Vichy French police officer, Pierre Brossard, supervises the round-up and execution of seven Jews by a contingent of German soldiers. After the war, he's charged with murder and collaboration with the enemy, but he escapes from prison, apparently aided by former superiors in the police establishment. Now, it's 1992, and Brossard (Michael Caine) lives in constant fear of exposure. A fervent Catholic, he skulks from French monastery to monastery, wherein he finds refuge with the help of sympathetic abbots and Church officials. A retired, former police official provides regular payments of money for frugal, day-to-day living. Now, Brossard is apparently being pursued by Jewish activists bent on his assassination. And if he hasn't worries enough, the French Justice Ministry has assigned a judge, Annemarie Livi (Tilda Swinton), and a police investigator, Colonel Roux (Jeremy Northam), to track Pierre down and take him into custody charged with war crimes. Are the two events related?

Pierre's wartime atrocity and his cold-hearted willingness to protect himself at any cost in the present are unlikely to endear him to the audience. On the other hand, the nature of the conspiracy against him by sinister forces, his failing health, and his sincere, if somewhat pathetic, religiousness render him an individual of some ambiguity. In the end, while Livi and Roux are the characters the viewer will naturally root for, Brossard will attract some small amount of sympathy because, perhaps, it's the popular Michael Caine in the role.

For me, the biggest problem with this otherwise reasonably intelligent film is the casting. Caine's Cockney British accent is never entirely submerged, and the other main roles have gone to Brits, most obviously Northam and Swinton. This is, after all, supposed to be France, but it might as well have been rural Hampshire! And it's never made clear why both the Church and powerful members of the government found it necessary or desirable to protect such a low-level Vichy functionary for so long anyway. Some conspiracies play better as fiction, and the Church is an ever-popular villain, especially if the Jesuits or a rogue cardinal or two are involved.

THE STATEMENT justly rates three stars, but I'm bumping it up a notch solely for Caine's performance (despite the accent). Northam and Swinton are also both effective.

One of the DVD's special features is an interview with Michael, in which he reveals that he was attracted to the Brossard role simply because he's rarely asked to play an unpleasant character not softened by his trademark cheeky humor. (I guess he forgot about SHINER!)

When I read Brian Moore's book a few years ago I was hooked from the first page. It is a tight, thoughtful and gripping thriller based on real events. The film is true to the book and a very good adaptation with great performances by a top knotch cast. Caine is superb, but so are all the others. I highly recommend it even though its portrayal of the Catholic Church is perhaps rather one sided and negative - fostering the idea of secret societies and complicity.