Proof of Life

I seem to remember hearing something about romantic sparks flying between the two co-stars of Proof of Life, Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe. I suppose we'll have to trust the gossip on this one because the screen gives off little indication of their ardor. And that's too bad, since one of the subplots in this action-suspense movie centers on the attraction that supposedly develops between the characters played by these two as they're thrown together through time, proximity, and shared tension. Despite being a dud in the romance department, Proof of Life scores some solid points in the action-suspense realm. Adapted by Tony Gilroy from a Vanity Fair article by William Prochnau, Proof of Life explores the little known world of K&R (Kidnap & Ransom) specialists. Prochnau's magazine piece highlighted the booming business of kidnapping among international militant groups whose economic support system has been undermined by the end of the Cold War. In turn, this has spawned a counterindustry in ransom and recovery work conducted by former spies and cold warriors, who do the bidding of multinational corporations that now take out K&R insurance. Russell Crowe plays one of these specialists, Terry Thorne, a laconic K&R expert who's been called in to rescue Peter Bowman (Morse), an American engineer who is building a dam for an oil company in a fictional South American country. However, when it turns out that the oil company hasn't paid its insurance, Terry is taken off the job. Yet, something unspecified about Bowman's spunky, tow-headed wife Alice (Ryan) gets under Terry's skin, and he returns to help her bargain for her husband's life. Shades of Casablanca infiltrate from the sidelines. As the months pass, what happens to David Bowman during his capture is much more interesting than what goes on back in his living room. Morse undergoes a riveting transformation from a soft-headed idealist who believes in the altruism of his dam-building project (despite its being underwritten by oil money) to a caged and filthy shred of a human. Also impressive is David Caruso as a K&R buddy of Terry's, who comes aboard for the rescue mission. It's great to see him finally land a great movie role. In fact, Morse and Caruso provide better reasons to see this film than do Ryan and Crowe. Other distractions include a red-herring sidetrack about Alice's miscarriage nine months previously, and a disorienting opening prologue during which Terry recounts his last mission to his superiors. As his voiceover delivers the bewildering details of this Chechnyan mission, we struggle to keep up, only to later find all this hastily presented information extraneous and merely a device to establish character identity. Proof of Life hurtles along like that. Hale and hearty it is not, but among the living it certainly is.