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Show Tl eat | B3 _ WASATCH COUNTY COURIER rer ‘DECEMBER 13, 2000 HELP: WANTED! idles of brutish, Graphic any idee Design _ DIRECTED BY TAYLOR HACKFORD. WRITTEN -. extortion. This sets us up, of course, — BY TONY GILROY. STARRING RUSSELL CROWE, - for the shoot-‘em-up finale, in which a rescue contracts kidnap its services terrorism. Ryan is Alice Bowman, everything 7 ees ees There are a cou- _ ple of roles that is seen torcoffer: i : missing. eri atke | ae farmed aus compelling complex Bowman | an| international kidnapping of— their hsinad/braticr Terry Thorne in Proof of Life.. tain Ryan _ seems somewhat ill at ease and mis- a that flowers into for life (Gottfried John) in cast, and Reed gets written out of the the prison camp, who flummoxes the last reel. | | guards (and apparently several of the ~ In 1999, moviegoers ran the gauntmovie’s reviewers) by pretending he. let of a proliferation of films loosely is crazy. . based on real events (including The During a botched escape attempt Moon), all of which were accused of playing fast and loose with the truth. So maybe they've earned the right to pause in the middle of a movie, look by Bowman throws and Kessler, Hackford in a series’ of red herrings to keep us in suspense about which of the escapees lives and which. dies. (The last we see of one of the pair is his prearound and ask “Where am [?” or cipitous plunge into an impossibly “What’s going on here?” steep waterfall after being shot by the Its hard to tell in Proof of Life, pursuing guards.) Later, we learn, they _which has its dubious roots in a 1998 have both survived, which keys the - Vanity Fair magazine article titled _ cliffhanger finale. (This sort of film“Adventures in the Ransom Trade” and making crushes any credibility the a book called Long March to. Freedom screenplay may have accrued to this by Thomas Hargrove. The picture can’t point.) | _ decide whether it’s a straightforward Director Hackford, who has adventure yarn or has something seri- proven adept at taking a rather meloous to say about the rather obvious dramatic piece of pulp fiction such as cliché that the world is a dangerous Dolores Claiborne and whipping it into place. an exciting (and even affecting) yarn, On the one _ hand, director -Hackford and screenwriter Tony is given just enough factual rope by Gilroy’s uneven screenplay to hang Gilroy try to salve inter-continental | relations by fuzzing and fictionalizing at least one of the picture’s locations _ (although the credits tell us the South himself. This movie’s title (which refers to a photograph or image that — kidnappers must supply to prove to those expected to pay the ransom that American scenes were shot in the victim is still alive) becomes an Equador). On the other, the white cap- - ironic footnote here. Proof of Life has tives in a jungle prison camp are natu- and individuated, 4 _ while their brown captors are nothing BStueBoardinn _ & RESTAURANT neither the convincing heartbeat of a true story nor the imagination and depth of good fiction. WISHING YOU THE | ~Happrest or Horrpays! ee 6 er Tue Bruz Boar INN TO CELEBRATE New Year's Eve 2001 * Insider, The Hurricane and Man in the ns re | once he acquires a willing compatri- ot, Eric Kessler r Re cer- desperation a lust - But | Peter gives be 5 = character. Morse and Russell Crowe a | iF nw and inJaw, trying theto » survive rally sympathetic | btn , most ‘a Se Meg Ryan as Alice Bowral : Davis-Coleman Realty 540 South Main « Heber City, Utah, 84032 emerges. as ‘the es STORY : to sell: $170,000. Don’t miss this one. Phusband=who Reed as sisters- 7 . _ stressful siege of OF THE CENTURY Two ) 430 West 100 South | ‘Completely fenced large lot. Special C-4 zoning, home business or investment property. Reduced oes Pamela ‘TURN PPT and the ONE-OF-A-KIND INVESTMENT 3 parcels or one large piece. Current survey. 3 - buildings zoned C-4. Strategically located busy Midway Lane, 100 South. i Ryan ee nterestingly, substance if not style--Meg. - ; Darla Love, GRI to victims of worldwide ~ rr ane it tops ties ee DEC 23, 2080 TNT MT explosions. UNTIL nT pany. that an invincible hero whose husband Peter (David Morse) . was taken hostage while helping to ~ construct a dam in Tecala. Alice is at _ with just a hint of. a repressed Terry’s side while he makes a series _ of radio contacts with the kidnappers, © romantic triangle. and this intimacy under pressure is No wonder, then, that somewhere “supposed to fuel a complex bonding, between England, Chechnya, and the laden with sexual tension. - steaming jungles of a fictional South Crowe is accomplished at sugAmerican country (with the unlikely gesting a well of untapped emotion name of Tecala), the picture ends up in beneath a stoic and silent exterior, No Man’s Land. : but nothing that Which isn’t to Alice and Terry. say that the share with each women do any other has much . and |. as well as an Crowe). and lots of gunfire GOOD ae _ (Russell Tyas _ ee action film with 435065605889 Wasatch County’s Source for News Russell Crowe is Terry Thorne, a former commando who now special- | izes in all sorts of physical derring-do and high-level hostage negotiation for Luthan Risk International, a com-. | thriller that rings with the truth of terrorism eres traps. wants to be a psychological today’s WASATCH Executive Cur Jesse LayMaNn ie epee: AR | _ EIGHT COURSE CANDLELIGHT DINNER ACCOMPANIED BY Music AND. ENTERTAINMENT | FESTIVITIES START AT 6: 30 PM 1235 WARM SPRINGS ROAD MIDWAY 435 654-1400 . aylor Hackford’s Proof of Life ‘ at : 7 aimed _ extracting the helpless victims sacri_ fices a few dozen lives (which we’re not supposed to care about) to machine gun fire and land mine booby 2 (Actoss From Tennis Court) : aos Swenson rescue mission | All That Stuff In The Barn eae i Review by Pied . daring popes cella titi ama Rn til RYAN, DAVID MORSE, PAMELA REED, 3 aire CARUSO. ; CC MEG Trampolines ¢ Playground Sets ¢ Kayaks ica Ww STARS | Great Gifts ° Home Accents & Decor ¢ Framed Prints tail a peasants who raise cocaine on the side ‘ and whose sole political ambition is : ‘ih ¥ Proof of Life \ Man’ S Land > Re) NG Wasatch County Courier — 210 East Main Street MIDWAY, UT 84049 or fax to:(435) 654-2531 f If you are interested in the following position, mail -. your resume.and samples to: ee ee es es “Where You'll Want To Bring Your Friends” |